Someone Like You
by Cheap Trixie
Summary: Dr. Jaime Walsh is a forensic psychologist and single mother. She's also the BAU's newest team member. As a rule, she doesn't go out, doesn't date. Afterall, she has a child to worry about. For Dr. Reid, however,she's willing to make an exception. Reid/OC
1. Chapter One

**Author's Note: Well, well, well...here I am again. This story is very differnt from anything I've ever done and I'm a little nervous about it. This is strictly a romance, so expect (in later chapters) some mushy stuff. I have to say, the character of Cadence is loosely based on my sister, Grace, and my neice, Tessa. Also, I'm not a forensic pyscholgist, but I've done some research on them and I think my description is pretty accurate, but still if I make any mistakes don't be shying about saying something to me! Constructive critisim is always welcome! Well, I'll stop rambling now and let you go read!**

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><p><em>I have a face I cannot show<br>I make the rules up as I go  
>So try and love me if you can<br>Are you strong enough to be my man?_

_-Sheryl Crow_

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><p>Dr. Jaime Walsh, thirty-two-years-old, was stuck in traffic. This wasn't abnormal in Washington D.C., especially at 8:00 in the morning, but still, it was frustrating. Jaime drummed the palm of her hand on her steering wheel, in time to the music playing on her radio. She sung softly along to the Rolling Stones cd she had stuck in that morning before leaving the house.<p>

_Damn it_! She looked around her, praying she could find an exit from this traffic. She had planned everything so perfectly, she thought. She had dropped her thirteen-year-old daughter, Cadence, off at school and thought she would have plenty of time to get to Quantico.

Today Jaime was starting her new job, as the main psychologist for the BAU. She was nervous, but even more so now, that she was nearly late. Finally finding an opening in the line of cars, she zipped her little red Prius on to a side road and gave it hell. Thankfully, she reached the unit building with time to spare. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror. The person looking back wasn't exactly ugly, but her heart-shaped face, wide set green eyes, and stubby nose didn't really scream 'beauty'. She did have this great little bee stung mouth that she was quite proud of, though.

Jaime quickly twisted her wheat colored hair into a bun and took a deep breath. This was it. She was as ready as she was gonna get, so she might as well get it over with. She grabbed her brown leather briefcase, a birthday gift from Cadence, and headed inside the building. She paused once inside, not quite where to go from here.

"Ms. Walsh." She turned, hearing the deep voice behind her. It was SSA Aaron Hotchner, her new boss. He was heading across the lobby towards her.

"Hello, Agent Hotchner." She said, trying to fight the urge to puke all over him.

"Call me Hotch, please." He told her, directing her towards the elevator. "Let's go on up, and I'll introduce you to your new team."

"All right." She said faintly, following him. Jaime didn't feel like this would be the best time to tell him that she hated elevators.

They rode mostly in silence, with a few words of small talk, up to the third floor. When the doors opened, they were an open room, quite crowded, filled with desk and agents. Jaime followed Hotch, trying to ignore the curious looks she was getting. He ushered her into a smaller room, where six people were sitting around a round table. Every face in the room turned towards her when Hotch cleared his throat. Jaime felt the heat rise in her face, especially under the gaze of the youngest member of her new team. He didn't look any older than Jaime herself, possibly younger, and he was gazing at her with avid interest.

"This is Dr. Jaime Walsh, our new psychologist." Hotch said, patting her shoulder.

He quickly introduced everyone at the table and Jaime got her first impressions of her new team: David Rossi, a slightly older man with a kind face; Derek Morgan, an extremely handsome black man, who winked at her; Jennifer Jareau, a pretty blonde with a nice smile, who said to call her JJ; Penelope Garcia, a red-head with cute pigtails and an outfit that Jaime would never expect to see at the F.B.I; Emily Prentiss, a dark haired woman with who simply nodded at her; and Dr. Spencer Reid, the young man who's attention she had caught when she entered, who simply blushed and looked down when their eyes locked.

"I'm going to give you a few minutes to get acquainted." Hotch said. He indicated for Jaime to sit down, then left the room.

Jaime sat, trying hard to pretend that the entire room wasn't staring at her.

"So, Jaime," Derek Morgan started. "Tell us about yourself."

She looked up from smoothing her skirt. "What do you want to know?"

He leaned his forearms on the table. "Well, are you married?"

"Oh my God, Morgan." Emily rolled her dark eyes. She looked at Jaime. "I'd tell you to ignore him, but it wouldn't do you any good."

Surprisingly, Jaime felt the urge to smile. "No, it's okay." She said. She held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger. "I'm not married; it's just me and my daughter."

"Oh, you have a daughter?" JJ asked. "How old is she?"

"She's thirteen." Jaime answered.

"You don't look older enough to have a teenage daughter." Rossi told her.

"I had her young." She answered. "I was barely out of high school."

"What's her name?" Penelope asked.

"Cadence." She told them.

"Must be difficult, raising a teenager by yourself." Derek said, leaning towards her again.

"We manage." Jaime told him. "As long as she has her cell phone and her IPOD, anyway."

Morgan laughed. A few seats down from him, Spencer Reid sat in silence. He knew he should ask Jaime some questions, but he couldn't bring himself too. He couldn't even open his mouth to speak. Reid had never believed in anything as foolish as love at first sight, but as soon as Hotch had led Jaime into the conference room, as soon as Spencer had laid eyes on her, he felt a lightening bolt strike his gut. He had had crushes before, even steady girlfriends, but none had affected him like this. He couldn't keep his eyes off her, the way the light shimmered in her blonde hair, the slight gap in her front teeth, her full, pink lips, the way the dimple in her left cheek flashed when she smiled.

When Hotch returned, he had JJ show Jaime her new office and around the BAU. As soon as the two blonde had left the conference room, Morgan turned to Reid. "So…what do you think of our lovely new team member?"

Spencer shrugged, though he knew his face was turning red. "She's okay, I guess." He tried to nonchalant, but wasn't sure he quite pulled it off.

Morgan snorted and Garcia grinned. "You think she's pretty, don't you?" She asked.

Spencer shrugged again. "She's not ugly." He said.

Prentiss laid her hand on Reid's shoulder. "Leave him alone, guys." She told them.

"What are you, his mommy?" Morgan asked, grinning.

Spencer narrowed his eyes. "Shut up." He said, standing up from the table. "I've got work to do." He said, leaving the room.

"Touchy, touchy." Morgan muttered after he left.

"Well, you were kind of mean to him." Rossi said. Morgan rolled his eyes.

"I was kidding. Jesus, can't anyone take a joke?" He left the room, too.

Prentiss rolled her eyes up. "Do you think one day those two will ever act like anything but overgrown preschoolers?"

"I doubt it." Garcia told her, tucking her fluffy pink pen behind her ear. "Well, Chickies, I've got things to see and people to do…"

Rossi stood up. "I guess we should get back to work, too." He said. Prentiss nodded and they left the conference room.

In the office next to hers, JJ was showing Jaime everything she would need. "Do you have any questions?" She asked when her little tour was over.

Jaime shook her head. "No." She said.

"Well, I'll let you get settled." JJ told her. "This office is yours to do what you like."

After she left, shutting the door softly behind her, Jaime sank down into her desk chair. She had barely been here an hour and a half and already she was exhausted. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, allowing her thoughts to drift to her new team. They seemed like friendly people, she thought, well except for Dr. Reid. He was the only one who hadn't asked her any questions, though maybe he was shy. Or maybe he resented Jaime's new spot on his team. She had heard rumors that not everyone in the BAU was happy about getting a psychologist in their division.

Jaime knew she shouldn't let this bother her, but she couldn't help dwell on it for a minute. Who could blame her for taking this job? It was quite a step up from her last job, where she had worked under another doctor. He had been sad to see her go, but seemed fairly happy for her. Jaime knew she had needed a better paying job, she did have a teenager to take care of and she was proud to say that she, a single, unwed mother, was able to enroll her daughter in a private school, live in a fairly new home, and drive a new car. Who would have thought that fourteen years ago, when she discovered she was pregnant? Certainly not the snobby girls in her graduating class, who had laughed at her baby bump under her graduation gown.

Who was laughing now, she thought bitterly. Who was laughing now?

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><p>Jaime spent the morning getting acquainted with her new job. When she finally glanced at the clock, she realized it was nearly noon, and that she could take her lunch break. She tried to remember where exactly JJ had said the breakroom was. She found it, and when she walked in, only one person was sitting in there. It was Dr. Reid.<p>

Jaime bought a Pepsi and a bag of pretzels from the vending machines and walked over to the table where he sat.

"Uh…can I sit here?" She asked. Dr. Reid looked up from his book, something written in a language Jaime didn't know. He seemed surprised, like he knew she was there, but didn't think she would speak to him.

"Er…sure…" He said. He was eating a Snickers and drinking a Mountain Dew.

"Is that your lunch?" She asked, nodding to his junkfood.

"Yeah." He said, a little sheepishly.

"I should tell you, as a mother, that that is extremely unhealthy, Dr. Reid." She said, smiling.

Spencer felt the lightening bolt hit his gut again. "You, uh, don't have to call me Dr. Reid." He told her. "Spencer is fine."

She smiled again. "Spencer, then. So, Spencer, are you married?"

"No." He shook his head. "I don't even have a girlfriend." He didn't know why he tacked that on.

"Oh, I see." She took a sip of her drink.

"What…what grade is your daughter in?" He asked, in a sudden burst of confidence.

"Cadence is in the eighth grade." Jaime told him. "She goes to Brookefield Academy."

"The private school?" He raised his eyebrows and she nodded.

"That's the one."

Spencer paused, unsure of what to say now. As he reached for his soda, his hand twitched and instead of grabbing the can, he knocked it over…all over Jaime's sweater.

"Oh, God!" He cried, jumping out of his seat. He tripped over his own feet, grabbing her some paper towels. "I'm so sorry!"

He handed her a wad a napkins and she dapped at her shirt. "It's all right." She told him. "It's no big deal."

Spencer knew his face was the color of a tomato. "Jaime…I'm so sorry. It was an accident."

She looked at him. "I know, its okay." Jaime unbuttoned her cardigan, revealing the thin, white tank-top she wore underneath. Spencer stopped gibbering his apologies and stared at her for a second. He could just make out the outline of her lacey bra under her shirt and even though he knew it was wrong, he felt the first stirrings of arousal.

"I'll…uh…pay for you to get that cleaned." He finally said. She shook her head.

"It was an old sweater." She told him. This was a lie; she had just bought it the week before, but the poor guy already looked so guilty, she couldn't add anymore to it.

"All right…if you're sure." He said, feeling more stupid than ever.

Jaime spent the rest of the day wrapped in her jacket, her soiled sweater stuffed in her bag. When Derek asked why she had changed, she just said she had spilled soda on her sweater. Spencer sent her a grateful look at that and she winked at him when Morgan's back was turned.

When the day was over, she rode down in the elevator with Spencer and JJ. As they exited the building, she noticed Spencer fiddling with his subway pass.

"You take the train?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yeah." He said. "I don't really have a need for a car."

"Oh…" She paused. "You wanna ride?"

He looked at her. "What?"

"I said, do you want me to give you a ride home?" She repeated. He shook his head.

"No, it's fine."

She touched his arm lightly and he felt another jolt. "Are you sure?"

"I…uh…yeah." He nodded. "I take the train everyday; it'll be lonely without me."

Silence, as the not so good joke fell flat.

"I was kidding." He said awkwardly. "That was a joke."

"Oh." She smiled uncertainly. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." She said. She walked away, towards her car.

Spencer watched her climb into the shiny, red Prius and kicked himself for not accepting her offer.

When Jaime arrived home, she found her daughter stretched out on the couch.

"Hey." Cadence said, looking up from her book. "How was it?"

"It was good." Jaime told her, removing her jacket.

"What happened to your sweater?" Cadence asked, laying her book down.

"Just an accident." Jaime said. "Nevermind that, how was school?"

Cadence sighed. "It was school, Mom. It sucked." She held up the book she was reading. "I did get a new book from the library."

"Is it good? "Jaime asked, studying the title, _'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'_. "It sounds creepy."

Cadence grinned. "It is."

Jaime sighed and rubbed her daughter head, before rising to go fix them some supper. Cadence was, like a lot of teenage girls, into all things fantasy. She loved Vampires, ghosts, and witches. In looks, she was her mother in miniature, the same willowy build, blonde hair (those hers was liberally streaked with black) and green eyes. Jaime had allowed, for Cadence's thirteenth birthday, for her to get her nose pierced, so she now wore a tiny silver hoop through her right nostril.

Jaime decided to make one of her favorite dishes, Chicken Parmesan casserole. After she mixed the ingredients, dumped them into a casserole dish, and slid it into the oven, she went to shower and change into something comfortable.

"I'm going to take a shower." She told Cadence, who was parked back on the couch, this time watching a rerun of 'How I Met Your Mother. "Can you listen for the oven?"

"Yeah." Cadence answered, her eyes never leaving the TV screen. "Sure."

Jaime walked down the hallway of their small, two bedroom house, and into her own room. She grabbed a clean pair of yoga pants and an old, faded t-shirt.

Once she was in the shower, the warm water spraying down on her, Jaime was able to relax a little. She let her mind drift and, for some odd reason, it drifted right to Spencer Reid. She knew that naked, in a hot shower, was not the appropriate place to think of her new co-worker, but she couldn't help it. He was very cute…she thought of the sweet way he had smiled at her. Quickly, she pushed the thought from her mind and finished her shower.

Dressed in clean pajamas, Jaime headed back out to check on the food. It was nearly done, so she joined Cadence on the couch. They ate their supper there, watching FX, then cleaned up the kitchen together. It was a ritual that the two of them had developed in all their years alone together. It was something Jaime figured wouldn't change, at least until Cadence left for college.

Then Jaime would be all alone.

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><p><strong>Note: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Now, there's this lovely little button right near the bottom of the page that reads 'REVIEW', so please, go press it and tell me what you think!<strong>


	2. Chapter Two

_He spoke; he spoke ordinary words  
>Although they did not feel<br>For I felt what I had not felt before  
>And you'd swear those words could heal.<br>And as I looked up into those eyes  
>His vision borrows mine.<br>And I know he's no stranger, For I feel I've held him for all of time_

_-Vanessa Carlton_

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><p>Spencer couldn't believe his good luck. Here he was, on a Saturday afternoon, just browsing in his favorite bookstore, and who does he see? Jaime Walsh, sipping a latte and poking around in the adult fiction section. She hadn't seen him yet, so he stayed partially hidden behind the shelves, just watching her.<p>

She looked different than she did at work. Even though they had worked together for nearly six weeks, he had only seen her in her work clothes, usually a skirt and a nice sweater, or button-down. Her blonde hair was always up in a bun or a clip. Today though, she wore a pair of light wash jeans that fit her like a second skin and an olive green polo. Her hair hung down, nearly to her shoulder blades.

Spencer watched her for a few minutes. She was reading the back of a book, and then was joined by a young girl who could only be her daughter. She was a pretty little thing, Spencer mused, but of course she would be, looking so much like her mother. She was dressed just as causally, in ripped jeans and a black t-shirt that said '_Team Edward'_ in big, white letters. She was waving a book in front of her mom, with a pleading look on her face. Spencer assumed she was begging for Jaime to buy it.

"Please, Mom?" Cadence asked, shaking the book. _"Ple-e-e-ase_?"

Jaime took the book from her daughter and studied it. It was called_ 'Marked: A House of Night Novel'_ and Jaime knew it was another vampire book. "All right." She relented. "You can get it."

Cadence jumped up and down and gave her mother a hug. "Oh, I'll love you forever!"

"Yeah, until the next time you want something." Jaime grinned.

Cadence grinned back. "Nikki said these books are really awesome!" She said, referring to her best friend, Nikki Holden.

"Hmm." Jaime grabbed the book she had been looking at. "You ready to go get some lunch?"

"Yep."

As they were heading towards the checkout, Jaime spotted a familiar brown head. She stopped. "Hey, I worked with him."

"Who?" Cadence looked around.

"That young guy, over there in non-fiction." Jaime tried to point discreetly. Cadence squinted.

"You mean to one in the sweater vest and corduroys? " She said. "He looks like a nerd."

Jamie elbowed her in the ribs. "His name is Spencer and he's very nice. He has an I.Q. of 187. I think he's kinda cute."

Cadence nodded. "I knew it. Nerd. Wait…isn't he the one who dumped soda all over you?"

"It was an accident." Jaime told her.

"So…" Cadence grinned. "He's a twitchy nerd? Let's go say hi." She grabbed her mother's hand and began to pull her over. "Spencer!" She called out. Jaime knew her face was red.

He turned and seemed fairly surprised. "Oh…um…hello, Jaime."

"Hi." She said. "Uh…this is my daughter, Cadence."

Cadence grinned wickedly at him. "What up? So, you work with my Mom, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"You're the genius, right?" She asked, tucking a piece of her streaked hair behind her multi-pierced ear.

"That's me."

She grinned again, her hot pink braces flashing at him. "My mom thinks you're cute." She said.

Jaime just about died of embarrassment. "Cadence!" She said. She turned to Spencer. "I'm still working on her manners. Usually, I keep her locked in the closet, but today she escaped."

Spencer smiled, though he knew he was blushing too. "It's all right."

"Well, we were about to go get some lunch…so, I guess I'll see you at work?" Jaime said.

"Yeah…see you." He said.

"You should come with us." Cadence told him. "Shouldn't he, Mom?"

"I don't want to impose…" He started to say, but Cadence waved her hand impatiently.

_"Puh-lease_. You're not imposing on us. Jesus." She said. "Tell him, Mom."

"Yeah," Jaime said faintly. "It's fine. You should join us, Spencer."

"Well…if you're sure." He said, still not quite believing that this was happening.

"We're going to Foti's." Cadence told him as the three made their way up to the checkout. "Do you like their food?"

"I…uh…don't think I've ever been there." He said, paying for the book he had picked out.

When they reached the Prius, Cadence climbed into the backseat, letting Spencer take her usual spot in the passenger seat. Jaime glanced in the rearview mirror.

"Seatbelt, Cade." She said, backing out of her parking space. Cadence groaned.

"_Mo-om_…" She whined slightly. "I'm in the back!"

"Put on your seatbelt, Cadence Breanne." Jaime said. "Or we'll just go home and forget lunch." The girl sighed and made a face, but fastened the belt.

"If I have my seatbelt on, how can I control the radio?" Cadence grumbled.

Jaime flipped the radio onto Cadence's favorite hit music station, 99.5. She glanced at Spencer, sitting ramrod straight in the passenger seat, as the sounds of Lady Gaga filled the car.

"Sorry about the music." She told him. "I know 'Poker Face' probably isn't your number one choice."

"It's all right." He told her. "I don't mind."

They rode mostly in silence to the restaurant, except for Cadence in the backseat, singing along to the radio. Spencer thought back to that morning, when he got out of bed. If someone had told him that a mere six hours later, he would be in Jaime Walsh's car, going to eat lunch with her and her daughter, he would have laughed himself silly.

"This is our favorite place to eat." Cadence told him after the got to Foti's. "I can't believe you've never been here."

He shrugged. "I don't, you know, eat out much."

"Oh." Cadence left it at that as the hostess seated them in a back booth. "I already know what I want." She told her mother.

Spencer looked over the menu and Jaime stole a sidelong glance at him. She couldn't believe he was having lunch with them. Every since that first day, when he spilled his drink on her, he kept popping up in the back of her mind. She knew that inter-department dating most likely wasn't allowed…not that it mattered, since she didn't date anyway. She didn't know what her daughter was getting at, inviting Spencer to come with them to lunch, but she really didn't mind. In fact, she was enjoying his company, he was just friendly enough, not overbearing.

"What's good?" he asked, surprised that when he glanced at Jaime, she was already looking at him. Her face reddened a little and she looked down at the menu. "The Foti's House Burger is good." She told him.

"I'll have that, then." He said.

Cadence could barely restrain from rolling her eyes. It was obvious, to her at least, that this guy liked her mom. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that; her mom hadn't had a boyfriend in a really long time. But this Spencer seemed pretty nice, if a little too quite for Cadence's taste. Oh, well, she would get him to loosen up.

"I want the Lamb Gyro." She told the waitress when she came over to get their orders.

Spencer placed his order, then Jaime got the Pomegranate seared Salmon.

"So…Spencer," Cadence started. "How old are you, exactly?"

"I'm thirty." He told her.

"And you really graduated high school when you were twelve?" She asked.

"I really did."

She nodded, impressed. "Sweet. I'm starting high school next year."

He smiled at her. "I know; your Mom told me."

Cadence looked surprised. "You talk about me at work?"

Jaime rolled her eyes. "Of course, I do, Cade. What do you think I talk about?"

Cadence shrugged. "I don't…what happened on True Blood?"

"I don't even watch True Blood." Jaime said.

"She does…" Cadence staged whispered. "She just doesn't want to admit it."

"I don't even know what True Blood is." Spencer admitted. Cadence giggled.

"It's a TV show about vampires." Jaime explained. "It's on HBO."

"I probably shouldn't watch it, it has lots of sex in it, but it's my Mom's guilty pleasure." Cadence told him.

"Cadence!" Jaime exclaimed.

"What? It does have a lot of sex; but it's not like I don't know what's what." She shrugged. "Do you like Twilight?" She asked Spencer.

"I don't know much about it." He told her. She sighed.

"I love Twilight. So does my Mom." She told him. "I'm_ soooo_ Team Edward." She pointed to her shirt. "See?"

"I do." He said, smiling at Jaime over Cadence's head.

"But Mom is Team Jacob." She said. Jaime nodded.

"It's true; I rooted for Jacob right up till the end." She said.

All in all, it was a good lunch. Spencer was a little sad to see it end. "Well…I guess I'll see you on Monday." He told Jaime outside the restaurant.

"You wanna ride home?" She asked, but Spencer shook his head.

"I'll walk; my apartment is only a few blocks from here." He said.

"You sure?" Cadence asked. He smiled at her.

"Yeah. The exercise will do me good." He said.

"All right." She said, climbing into the front seat. She stuck her head out the window. "It was nice to meet you, Spencer." She told him.

"You too, Cadence." He said. She grinned and sat back. Spencer looked at Jaime. "She's something else." He told her.

Jaime smiled. "I know." She glanced down at her sneakers, then back up at him. "So, I'll see you at work, huh?"

"Yeah." He said.

He watched as she climbed into her car and waved as she pulled from the curb. Then he turned and started down the block. He would never admit this to anyone, but he was on his way back to the bookstore; he thought he might grab all four Twilight books…you know, just to see what the fuss was about. He might stop at Blockbuster Video on the way home too; maybe see if they had the first season of True Blood. Spencer had feeling he was going to get much more acquainted with Vampires.


	3. Chapter Three

**Author's Note: Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has reviewed or added my to their favorites and alerts. You guys are my lifeline! Okay, one more quick thing: as a big fan of Harry Potter, I also tend to read a lot of fic's from that catergory and I have discovered a gem! It's called 'My Immortal' and it has been voted the worst fanfic on this entire site! Its really funny, so you guys should check it out if you want a laugh. It's in my favorites...well, the special edition is, at least. Just read it. It's worth it.**

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><p><em>I'm a little nervous about this feeling<br>But I leave it, no holding back, _

_Only believing I'm not sure how you feel or what you want to do  
>But I can say straight from my heart, all I want is you<em>

_-Ashton Shepherd_

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><p>"<em>Aughh<em>!" Garcia threw her hands in the air and gave a little shriek.

"What! What is it?" Prentiss looked around like maybe an Unsub had burst through the door of the breakroom with an Uzi.

"I love this song!" Garcia reached over and turned up the radio. She had tuned it to 99.5 when she came in, and their special noontime feature, the Back-In-The-Day-Café, was playing 'How Do You Talk to an Angel'.

"Emily rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. "You scared the crap out of me!" She told Garcia, who just grinned.

"God, this song brings back memories." JJ said, bopping her head in time to the music.

"Tell me about it." Jaime said.

The four women had surprisingly landed the same lunch break today, so Garcia had run out and got them all Chinese food. They were the only ones in the breakroom, so it was becoming increasingly goofy in there.

Jaime bit into one of her crab ragoons, as Garcia started sing along to the song. JJ grinned and joined in with her. Jaime and Prentiss exchanged pained looks, but soon they were singing along too. In fact, when Hotch poked his head into the breakroom to see what all the noise was about, that was the scene he found before him: four grown women singing along to a song that was nearly twenty year old.

_"How do you talk to an angel?_

_How do you hold her close to where you are?_

_How do you talk to an angel?_

_It's like trying to catch a falling star."_

"All right, ladies," He said good naturedly. "As enjoyable as this little sing-a-long is, I think you need to keep it down."

"Sorry." Emily said, grinning.

"The music was just so contagious." Garcia told him, while JJ and Jaime nodded solemnly beside her. Hotch just shook his head and walked away.

"I'd be careful, if I were you." He told Morgan and Reid, who were on their way to the breakroom for their lunch break. "There's a lot of nineties nostalgia flowing in there."

Morgan grinned. "We'll try not to slip in it." He said, leading Spencer into the room. The girls were still singing quietly along with the radio.

Derek looked at each girl. "Well, I wouldn't give up your day jobs." He told them. Jaime threw a wadded up napkin at him. He dodged it and it bounced off Spencer's forehead.

Jaime clapped her hand over mouth while the others laughed. Spencer knew his face was turning red.

"I'm so sorry, Spencer!" She told him, scooting her chair over to make room for him to sit down. "That piece of trash wasn't intended for you."

Garcia was now bopping her head to an Ace of Base song. "Ohh…don't through trash at my beautiful man." She winked at Morgan. He grinned and shook his head.

"What the hell are you guys making us listen too?" He asked.

"It's The Back-In-The-Day-Café." JJ told him. "They play all these great songs from the eighties and nineties."

"Yeah," Prentiss added. "You just missed Baby Got Back."

Morgan shook his head again. "You girls are nuts." He said. He looked across the table at Reid, who was too busy trying not to stare at Jaime as she laughed at something JJ had said to her.

"Well…" Jaime stood up from the table and stretched. "I think I need a smoke before I go back to work."

"Me too." Emily told her. They quickly cleaned up their mess and headed downstairs to smoke outside.

Ten minutes after they left, JJ and Garcia finished their lunches too. As soon as they were gone, Morgan reached over and snapped the small radio, which was now blaring out an old TLC song, off.

"You weren't listening to that, were you?" He asked Reid, almost as an afterthought.

Spencer shook his head and pulled a book out of his bag. "Nope." He said.

It took Morgan a few seconds to register the title of the book Reid was holding. He was so used to see the kid with his nose stuck in a book, but this was different. There was no mistaking the cupped hands holding the bright red apple on the cover of this particular book.

"Twilight?" Derek asked. "Are you seriously reading _Twilight_?"

Spencer's face reddened a little, but he stood his ground. "I figured I should finally see what all the fuss was about." He said.

Morgan grinned. "And this sudden interest has nothing to do with the fact that a certain psychologist has a huge _'Team Jacob'_ button pinned to the front of her bag?"

Spencer felt his face grow even hotter, but he shook his head. "No…I was just curious." He lied.

Derek sighed. "Whatever." He said, biting into his sub sandwich. "I know you like her, though."

He nodded to Jaime, who had come back in from her smoke break and was now bent over Emily's desk. She was wearing a dark brown pencil skirt and it clung tightly to the curve of her rear end. Spencer bit his lip, feeling that familiar stirring in his groin. His gaze traveled down Jaime's butt and over her legs. She wore the sexiest type of stockings, in Spencer's opinion, the kind that had the seam up the back. He wondered momentarily if they were the kind that went all the way up, or the ones that clipped onto a garter. The thoughts of what kind of extremely sexy things that Jaime could be wearing under her clothes danced through his head for a minute.

Morgan snickered and brought Spencer crashing back down from Fantasyland. He looked at Jaime again. The hem of her light pink blouse had ridden up and Derek and Spencer could just make out the top of a tattoo on the small of her back.

"Oho…a tramp stamp." Morgan whistled lowly. "Now _that's_ hot."

"Shut up." Spencer told him, but he secretly agreed. "What do you think it is?"

"I'm gonna go with some kinda butterfly." Derek told him. "If look real close, you make out wings."

Spencer squinted; glad that Jaime's back was turned. He could, barely, make out what could be the top of some wings. "I bet you're right." He said. They didn't get to contemplate on it for very long, because Jaime straightened up and went back to her office.

Once the distraction was gone, he went back to his book. Morgan shook his head and ate some more of his sandwich.

"Isn't that book for teenage girls?" Rossi asked, coming into the room with his lunch.

"He's reading it in the interest of pop culture." Derek explained. Dave raised his eyebrows and proceeded to the microwave to heat up his food.

"So…he's not reading it in the interest of a pretty, young, forensic psychologist?" He asked.

Morgan shrugged. "He claims not."

Spencer looked up from the book. "I'm right here; I can hear you."

Rossi patted his shoulder in mock sympathy. "We know, kid. We know."

In her office, Jaime was getting ready to start on some paperwork. That was what most of her job consisted of, paperwork. She also helped JJ with picking which cases took precedence. The thing she loved about the job, however, was the fact that she didn't have to leave town. Unlike the rest of the team, she was able to do all her work right there at Quantico. In fact, she was just getting ready to start the papers for their newest case and it was a strange one, even by BAU standards. A knock on her door made her look up.

"We're ready." Hotch told her from the doorway. "You can finish the papers later."

"All right." She said.

They walked to the conference room together. Jaime tried not to look too hard at the crime scene photos when she entered; even though she had read the extremely graphic reports, the pictures were a whole other ball of hell. She took her seat next to Derek.

"You all right?" He asked her in concern. "You look a little…green."

She shook her head. "I'm fine." She lied, swallowing hard. She glanced across the table at Spencer. He was also looking at her, but when she caught his eye, he flushed and looked away.

"Okay," JJ said, coming in. "This case comes from Pillarsville, Arkansas. If you look closely at the crime scene photos, you might notice something a little strange."

Jaime didn't have to look at them; she already knew what was strange.

"All the scenes are staged to look like horror films." Spencer said after a few minutes.

"What?" Rossi looked closer.

"Look," Reid indicated. "All three of them are depicting a scene from a horror movie: Psycho" (he pointed to the first photo, where a woman had been stabbed to death in her shower), "Friday the 13th" (he indicated the second photo, a teenage boy with an arrow through his eye), "and Children of the Corn" (this time he pointed at the last photo, a young man, tied to a cross made of corn husks).

"The really strange thing," Jaime spoke up. " Is the factor that made the Pillarsville police truly think that these murders were all the work of one Unsub is the fact that each victim wasn't killed in the way depicted in the photos. They were all smothered in their sleep, then the stage was set after they were dead."

"So…this Unsub isn't doing this to cause pain." Rossi said. "He's making sure the victims go peacefully and quietly, then he does this horrific stuff to them."

"Exactly." JJ said.

Within thirty minutes they were ready to go to the airstrip. "Be careful." Garcia told Derek and Spencer, the last two to head down.

"We always are." Morgan told her, squeezing his hand.

"I guess I'll see you when you get back." Jaime told Spencer. He nodded and looked at his feet.

"Yeah." He said.

"You'll be safe, won't you?" She asked and this time, he did meet her eyes.

"Of course I will." He said, and he fought the urge to brush his hand across her cheek. "And I'll see you soon, okay?"

She smiled and nodded. "Okay."

He hesitated, like there was more he wanted to say, but before he could get it out, Morgan was talking to him.

"Come on, pretty boy, the Unsub isn't gonna catch himself."

She bit her lip as Spencer turned and he and Derek headed to the elevators.

"What was _that_?" Garcia asked, lightly slapping Jaime's arm.

"What was what?" Jaime's head was still with Spencer.

"You and Reid just had a moment!" She said. This brought Jaime from her reverie.

"We did not!" She protested. "I was just telling him to be careful."

Garcia grinned. "You like him." This was not a question.

"Of course I like him, he's my friend."

"Uh-uh." Garcia shook her head, her pigtails bobbing. "You_ like_ like him."

"Oh God." Jaime rolled her eyes. "What are you, in grade school?"

Garcia just laughed. Jaime rolled her eyes and walked away, muttering something about having work to do.

"Denial isn't just a river in Egypt!" Garcia called loudly after her. Two young trainees's stopped and gave her a weird look. "What the hell are you looking at?" She asked, before heading back to her cave.


	4. Chapter Four

_There's nothing you can do that can't be done  
>Nothing you can sing that can't be sung<br>Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game  
>It's easy<br>Nothing you can make that can't be made  
>No one you can save that can't be saved<br>Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time  
>It's easy<br>All you need is love _

_-The Beatles_

* * *

><p>"<em>Mo-om<em>…" Cadence whined. "It's Saturday!"

"I'm aware of that." Jaime answered crossly.

"But why I have to come with you?"

Jaime sighed. "You're grounded."

Cadence rolled her eyes. "And you don't trust me alone all day?"

"No. We've been over this. After last time, I'm sorry, but I don't."

"Fine!" Cadence thumped back against the car seat. "I'll come to your stupid office, but I don't have to like it!"

"No, you most certainly don't." Jaime told her.

Cadence reached down and cranked up the radio. The sounds of Korn filled the car. Jaime didn't particularly care for the song 'Coming Undone', but she didn't say anything. She knew how to pick and chose her battles with her daughter.

It was four days after the rest of the team had for Arkansas and Jaime had received a call from Hotch, at 7:30 am, no less, saying they were back and that she needed to be at the office in an hour. She had quickly explained her predicament with Cadence to him and he said she could bring along, this once.

Jaime glanced over at Cadence. She would definitely stand out in the BAU. She was wearing a pair of extremely wide-legged blue jeans, a black hoodie, and her skateboard shoes. Cadence had it in her head that when she grew up; she was going to be a professional skateboarder. In fact, that was how she got grounded in the first place; she'd been trying to do handrails across the kitchen counter and knocked out a window. The grounding was supposed to only last for two weeks, but she had caught Cadence tryring to sneak around it, she had tacked another two weeks to it.

"Here we are." Jaime pulled into a space in the nearly empty parking lot.

"Huzzah!" Cadence muttered sarcastically, slinging her black bookbag over her shoulder.

"Don't be a smartass." Jaime told her. "Just behave, okay?"

Cadence sighed. "Whateve." She slipped her earbuds in, cranked up her IPOD, and pulled the hood of her jacket up.

Jaime sighed too, and led her into the building. They rode the elevator alone and when the got out on their floor, the bull pen was nearly empty. In fact, the only person in there was Garcia. Jaime nudged her daughter and she pulled earbuds from her ears. Loud rock music erupted from them.

"Hey!" Garcia said when she spotted them. "This must be the infamous Cadence!"

Cadence grinned at this description. "Guilty." She said.

"Oh, you are a pretty little thing, aren't you?" Garcia said to her, holding out her hand. Cadence shook it. "Penelope Garcia, but you can just call me Garcia, okay, doll baby?"

"Okay." Cadence grinned again. Maybe this day at her mother's office wouldn't be so lame, after all.

A half an hour later, the rest of the team had arrived, and Cadence had met everyone. Spencer was the last one to get there.

"Cadence!" He said in surprise, when he saw her and Morgan at the vending machines. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hey, Spencer." She said casually, biting into her Reese's cup. "My Mom made me come with her."

Morgan narrowed his eyes. "You two already know each other…?"

"Yeah, he went to lunch with me and my Mom a couple of weeks ago." She looked back and forth between the two men; Derek, who was smirking, and Spencer, whose face was turning red. "What? Was that supposed to be a secret or something?"

"No…" Spencer said. Morgan grinned.

"Apparently, it was sweet pea." He told her. "Because I didn't know anything about it."

Cadence looked from one to the other again. "What's going on? Is there a plot afoot?"

Morgan snapped out of his gloating. "A plot _afoot_?" He asked.

She grinned. "What? Sometimes I like to talk mid-evilly."

"That's not a word." Spencer told her.

"Well, I just made it one." She replied. She sighed. "You guys are cute, but boring. I'm gonna go find Garcia! Oho! Maybe she'll help me hack into Robert Pattinson's security footage!"

"You went to lunch with them?" Morgan asked, grinning, as soon as Cadence was gone.

"It…It wasn't like that!" Reid protested. "I ran into them at a Walden's Books a couple of weeks ago and they invited me to have lunch with them. It was no big deal."

Derek smirked. "If it wasn't a big deal, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you'd act like this!" Spencer told him.

Derek just grinned. "You got it so bad for her, don't you?"

"No!" Spencer felt his voice go up an octave; he could have kicked himself.

"Yes, you do!" Morgan laughed.

Spencer sighed and his shoulder's sagged in defeat. "Look, it wouldn't matter even if I did like her. A woman like that would never go for me."

Morgan stopped laughing. He felt genuinely bad for his friend. "Reid, you know that's not true…you've got a lot going for you."

Spencer snorted. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Derek opened his mouth to answer, but before he could Hotch was calling them into the conference room.

Cadence spent most of the morning in Agent Rossi's office; because he had a small TV he said she could watch. She flipped it onto an Adventure Time marathon and zoned out until lunch. Around noon, a small knock at the door snapped her out of it.

"Yeah?" She said.

"Hey," The dark haired agent, Agent Prentiss (who had said to just call her 'Emily) poked her head into the room. "We're about to eat lunch, you're Mom asked me to come and get you."

"Okay." Cadence sat up and stretched. Emily got a good look at her t-shirt and started to laugh.

"I love that!" She said, indicating to it. Cadence grinned and looked down at her shirt. It had a picture of Chuck Norris on it and it read 'Chuck Norris is the only person alive who can kick you in the back of the face.'

"I know, right?" Cadence said. "Chuck Norris is the bomb-diggitey."

"That he is." Emily agreed. "You ready to eat?"

"Sure." Cadence followed her from the room. "What's for lunch?"

"Pizza." Emily told her.

"Sweet, I hope they got pepperoni." Cadence said.

"I think that's a given." Emily opened the door to the conference room and let Cadence go in.

She sat down between Spencer and JJ and helped herself to some pizza.

"So…Cadence, I hear you're quite the skateboarder." Hotch said to her. She swallowed and nodded.

"Yep…I'm going Pro one day." She answered.

"Other teenage girls want to be doctors or teachers." Jaime said, grinning. "My daughter wants to be the next Bam Margera."

"What's a Bam Margera?" Spencer asked. Cadence snorted a laugh.

"He's a skateboarder." She said.

"Oh."

"Do you have a boyfriend, Cadence?" JJ asked her. She shook her head.

"We broke up." Cadence replied.

"She kept throwing glitter in his face and screaming 'I love you, Edward!'" Jaime piped up.

Cadence narrowed her eyes at her mother. "That only happened two times." She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Besides,_ I_ broke up with_ him_."

"How come?" Derek asked, still grinning from the 'Edward' comment. Cadence shrugged.

"He was a loser. He kept getting mad because I can ally-oop way better than he ever could." Cadence looked up and was met with seven confused stares. "It's a skateboarding move." She explained.

After lunch, she got to hang out in Garcia's cave with her. Cadence sat in Garcia's fuzzy pink chair.

"I think my Mom and Spencer like each other." She said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Garcia looked at her carefully. "What do you think about that?" She asked.

Cadence shrugged. "He's cool, I guess." She spun the chair: once, twice, three times. "I mean, I'm not really used to my Mom having boyfriends, you know?"

"You like Spencer, don't you?"

Cadence continued to spin the chair. "Sure, but what if they like, get married? Then he would move in with us and then he would be around all the time and…and…and it would just be weird."

Garcia fought back a smile. "You've really given this a lot of thought, haven't you?"

Cadence smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I have. I mean, ever since he had lunch with us-."

Garcia cut her off. "Wait…he had lunch with you guys?" She asked in surprised.

Cadence felt like kicking her own ass. "Yeah." She admitted. "We saw him at the bookstore a couple of Saturday's ago and he went to lunch with us."

"Oh."

"Anyhoo, ever since then, she talks about him all the time. I've never seen her like this." Cadence shrugged.

"Like what?" Garcia leaned forward eagerly.

"Like…she goes around playing all these love songs, and she's started watching these cheesy romances and crying at them. It's weird."

"What songs does she sing?" Garcia asked curiously.

"I don't know…a lot of REO Speedwagon." Cadence answered. "If I have to hear 'Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore' one more time, I swear to God, I'm gonna be at the top of a clocktower with a rifle and pantyhose on my head."

Garcia chuckled at her. "Sadly, I could totally see that." She shook her head. "Can you keep a secret?"

Cadence leaned forward. "Of course."

"Derek and I have a plan." She tapped the side of her nose. "Those two are gonna be together before it's all said and done."

Cadence smiled. She thought maybe she could handle that.


	5. Chapter Five

_And it's something quite peculiar,  
>Something that's shimmering and white.<br>Leads you here despite your destination,  
>Under the milky way tonight.<em>

_-Kill Hannah_

* * *

><p>"Okay," Cadence whispered into her cell phone. "I'm out of earshot."<p>

"Good girl." Garcia told her from the other end. "You're on speaker, okay?"

"Okay…who all is listening to me?" She asked, feeling a little weird.

"It's just me." She heard a deep voice that she immediately recognized as Derek Morgan. "How you doin', sugar?"

Cadence fought off the urge to giggle; she preferred to think of herself as practically an adult, but this man and his pet names reduced her to a five-year-old. "I'm good." She answered, once the laughing urge had passed. "What did you guys need to know?"

"Just a few things about your Mom." Garcia told her. "Like, what is her favorite flower?"

"Sweetheart roses." Cadence told them. "Um…does this have anything to do with your plan to hook her up with Dr. Reid?"

She could hear Derek and Garcia laughing. "Yes…" He answered. "Yes, it does."

"All right." She answered. "What do you wanna know?"

"Your mother's favorite color, book, food, song, and movie." Garcia told her.

Cadence flopped down on her bed and stared at the Shia LaBeouf poster she had tacked to her ceiling. "Okay…her favorite color is turquoise. Um, she has a lot of favorite foods, but she really likes like, comfort foods you know?"

"Like fried chicken and mashed potatoes?" Derek asked. Cadence nodded, even though she knew they couldn't see her.

"Yeah, stuff like that." She paused thinking. "Let's see, her favorite song is 'Just Like Heaven', by The Cure, but she really likes grunge, too."

"Jaime likes grunge?" Garcia sounded surprised. Cadence laughed.

"Yeah, you should see her high school pictures! She was all about ripped jeans and flannel, let me you." Cadence laughed again. "She told me that when Kurt Cobain died, she had some of her friends drove across the country, all the way toSeattle, to honor him."

"Really?" Garcia asked, impressed. "That was in 1994…she would've been what, fifteen?"

"Yeah." Cadence answered. "Apparently, my Uncle Bobby, he's my Mom's big brother, he and some of his friends were going, so he let her and her best friend come along. Mom says when they got back; they were both ground for nearly six months."

"I bet it was worth it." Morgan commented.

"Well, anyway, her favorite movie is 'Benny and Joon'." Cadence told them, getting back on track.

"Ohh, I love that movie!" Garcia said, sighing. "I think its one of Johnny Depp's best, don't you?"

"Yeah." Cadence agreed. "But I think his very best is 'Sleepy Hollow'."

"What?" Garcia screeched. "No way! I mean, that's a good one, but anyone with any Johnny Depp knowledge knows his greatest movie of all time is 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'."

"Ladies, can we focus here?" Derek interrupted. "Cadence, what's your Mom's favorite book?"

"To Kill a Mockingbird, but how I don't see how any of this matters." Cadence flipped over on her stomach.

"I matters because it matters." Garcia told her. "We can't tell you the details of this operation, because you're too close to the home source."

"Right…" Cadence shook her head. "You make this sound like a covert mission or something."

"It is." Derek told her. "And you're our spy."

"Sweet." She grinned. "I'm like your ninja?"

"Exactly, pumpkin." She could hear the smile in Derek's voice.

"One more thing?" Garcia said before they hung up. "What's her sign?"

"Like, her star sign? She's a Scorpio." Cadence told them. "Her birthday is November 15th."

"Okay, I think that's all we need for now, but I have you on speed dial, in case I think of anything else." Garcia told her. "Now, remember, you need to do your part of this _tonight_, okay?"

"Okay…wish me luck." Cadence told them before hanging up her cell. She flopped back on her bed, staring around her bedroom. The walls, what little you can see of them, were painted purple, her favorite color. Of course, 95% of them were covered with posters. Her bed was a wrought iron, four posters, with a fluffy purple and silver comforter. She stretched out for a few minutes, and then decided to do her part of this "plan".

Cadence hopped off her bed and walked down the hallway to the living room. Her mother was stretched out on their couch in her Hello Kitty pajamas, eating ice cream from the carton and watching 'Supernatural'.

"What's the word, hummingbird?" She asked, causing Cadence to grin. This was the same thing her mother said to her everyday.

"Nothin'." She sat on the arm of the couch. "Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Jaime took a bite of her Chunky Monkey. "What is it, baby?"

"It's well…it's about Dr. Reid." Cadence bit her lip.

Her mother looked at her. "Spencer? What about him?"

"_Mo-om_…" She sighed. "You know he likes you, right?"

Jaime laughed. "What? No, he doesn't!"

"Yes…he does." Cadence sighed again. "Mom, everybody knows it! Do you like him?"

"I…" Jaime looked down; a little embarrassed to be having this conversation with her daughter. "I do like him."

"Like a boyfriend?" Cadence pressed.

"I don't know, Cade!" Jaime sat her ice cream down. "I haven't dated in a really long time. You know that."

"I know, but Mom, I'm not a little kid anymore. If you wanted to go out with him, I wouldn't throw a fit."

"No, you just knock your skateboard through the window." Jaime said with a hint of a smile on her face.

Cadence rolled her eyes. "Seriously…if he asks you out, promise me you'll go out with him. I mean, he's really cute and he's smart, and nice. What more could you want in a man?"

"I don't know." Jaime shook her head. "I really don't."

Ten miles away, Morgan was in Spencer's apartment, having a similar conversation with him.

"I can't just walk up to her and ask her out!" He was saying. Derek rolled his eyes.

"Reid, it's not that big of a deal." He told him. "God, you face Unsub's with guns on a weekly basis, but you can't even ask Jaime out?"

"I…I'd just mess it up and then she'd think I was an idiot." He said.

"Okay, how about," Morgan said, acting like this idea had just struck him. "We make it a group thing? Everybody can go." This, of course, had been part of the plan all along, but Reid needn't know that.

"What do you mean by 'everybody'?" Spencer asked suspiciously.

Morgan shrugged. "Oh, you know…me, Garcia, JJ, Will, Prentiss, Rossi…everybody." He sighed. "If it makes you feel better, you can tell Jaime to bring Cadence along. Will that make it feel less date like?"

Reid widened his eyes. "I have to ask her?"

Derek honestly felt like smacking his friend in the back of the head right then. "Yes, Spencer,_ you_ have to ask her. I mean,_ I_ can ask her, if you want, but then she might take that like _I'm_ trying to ask her out. If you're not gonna make your move though, I'll be more than happy to pick up your slack, because she is one smokin' hot little piece of-."

"All right!" Spencer cut in sharply. "I'll ask her! Jesus Christ."

"Good." Morgan grinned, knowing that would get Reid's goat. He picked up his friend's phone and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. "It just so happens I have her number right here."

Spencer sighed. "Of course you do." He snatched his phone, and Jaime's number, from Derek's hands. His own hands shaking slightly, he punched in the numbers. It began to ring…one…twice…three times…maybe she wouldn't pick up…

"Hello?" Jaime's voice sounded from the other end.

"Oh…uh…Jaime?" He stuttered. Morgan kicked him and mouthed 'Be cool'. Spencer, not knowing what came over him momentarily, shot him the finger. Morgan hacked a laugh into the crook of his arm.

"Yes…who is this?" She asked.

"It's, uh, Spencer." He said, taking a few deep, calming breaths. "Spencer Reid."

"Oh, hey Spencer." She sounded genuinely happy to hear from him. "What's up?"

"Oh…well…um, tomorrow night a bunch of us are going to, uh…" He glanced up at Morgan, with wide eyes.

"Molly's" Morgan hissed. "At 6:30!"

"Uh…Molly's." Spencer finished. "And we…I mean,_ I_ was wondering if you wanted to come along? Cadence is welcome, too, of course…" He trailed off.

"Spencer…are you asking me out?" She asked. He gulped.

"Um…maybe…do you want me to ask you out?"

Morgan's head shot up and he grinned at Spencer.

"You know, I think I do." Spencer thought he could hear the smile in her voice. "Cadence and I will be there. What time?"

"6:30." He said, not quite believing what had just happened.

"6:30." She repeated. "All right, I'll see you then."

"See you then." He echoed faintly. When they hung up, his eyes were round. "She said yes."

Morgan grinned. "I told you she would."

Back at the Walsh home, Jaime hung up her phone.

"Who was that?" Cadence asked, trying to sound innocent. Her mom shot her a look.

"It was Spencer. He just called to invite us to Molly's tomorrow night." She paused, looking her daughter up and down. "Did…did you have something to do with this?"

Cadence widened her eyes. "Me? I'm just a teenage girl. What could I possibly do?"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Now just go down a little bit, hit the review button, and tell me what you think! Remember, reviews are frre, so give them away!<strong>


	6. Chapter Six

**Author's Note: I just gotta say a quick thanks to lolyncut for all your nice reviews! You asked for some Reid whumping and don't woory, he's gonna get some in later chapters! I have a lot planned for this story, so stay tuned!**

* * *

><p><em>You're like a wreck out on the highway<br>I can't look away and I can't pass through  
>You're like an early morning Monday<br>Bringing me down, messing with my mood  
>I'd love to say I can hold myself together<br>But I can't help but come unglued  
>Every time I see you<em>

_-Luke Bryan_

* * *

><p>"What do you think?" Jaime asked Cadence, spinning around to show off her outfit.<p>

"Mom…" Cadence gaped at her for a minute. "You look awesome."

"Do I?" Jaime looked down at herself. She was wearing a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a tight red scoop-neck t-shirt, and a pair of black knee-high boots. She had left her hair to hang down her back.

"Yeah, you really do." Cadence told her. "How do I look?"

She was wearing a pair of flare-legged trucker jeans, her beat up Converse high tops, and a Runaways t-shirt, that Jaime knew was at least two sizes too small.

"You look cute." Jaime told her. She shrugged on her coat and grabbed her purse. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yep." Cadence put her own coat on.

They lived in a large sub-division, called Wildflower Ridge (even though there were no wildflowers or ridges anywhere in sight, which Cadence was often fond of pointing out). It was on the outskirts of the city, and Jaime loved it.

She backed the Prius out of the garage and down the driveway, out onto the street. Cadence flipped on the radio and the of Mike Posner's 'Cooler Than Me' filled the car. They both sang along, Jaime tapping her boot in time to the music.

"Are you nervous?" Cadence asked her. She shrugged.

"A little. Why do you ask?"

Cadence shrugged. "I don't know…you just seem a little on edge. Is it because you're meeting up with Spencer?"

Jaime smiled. "I think so. He is cute, isn't he?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I like him; I guess he'd make an okay stepdad…oh! He can help me with my homework!"

Jaime swatted her playfully. "Nobody said _anything_ about him being your stepdad! God, don't say that in front of him!"

"So I can't ask him if I can call him 'Daddy'?" Cadence grinned wickedly.

"No!" Her mother told, half laughing. "Don't say anything like that, do you hear me?"

"Fine." Cadence held up her hands in mock surrender. "But when you guys get married, I'm totally gonna call him 'Big Daddy Spence'."

"I'm changing the subject." Jaime said. "So…your grounding ends next week; what're you gonna do with your freedom?"

"Duh, I'm going to the skate park." Cadence answered as if it was obvious; which, Jaime thought, it probably should've been. "I have a question: I'm still grounded, right?"

"Right." Jaime nodded.

"Then why are you letting me out tonight?"

"Because you're with me and I can make sure you don't have too much fun." Jaime told her, grinning. Cadence rolled her eyes.

When they got to Molly's everyone else was already there, sitting in a huge corner booth.

"There they are!" Morgan shouted, making room for the two of them. "You can sit right here next to me, cupcake." He told Cadence. She grinned and slid in the booth, between him and Spencer.

"Jaime, you look hot!" Garcia exclaimed. Spencer silently agreed.

Jaime flushed. "Thanks." She said, sliding into the booth, too. She was sitting on the end, right next to Spencer. "Hi." She said quietly to him.

"Hello." He answered, his face turning a little red. He looked very cute, Jaime thought, in his corduroys and button down shirt. "You…um…you look nice." He said quickly.

"Thanks." She answered. "So do you."

The rest of the booth, which consisted of Emily, JJ, JJ's husband, Will, and Rossi, tried to pretend that they hadn't heard this exchange. JJ quickly introduced Will to Jaime and Cadence.

Cadence had never been inside Molly's before, so she looked around curiously. It was a fixture of a bar and a casual restaurant, with a large dance floor. Right now, some old Aerosmith song was playing and a lot of people were dancing.

"I wanna dance." She said.

"Eat first." Her mother told her. Cadence crossed her eyes at her.

"_Mother_…"

"Tell you what." Derek interceded. "Go ahead and eat, and when you're done, we'll go dance, all right?"

Cadence smiled at him. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"All right." She leaned around Spencer to talk to the waitress, who had come to take their orders. "I want chicken strips and fries."

"And to drink?" The woman asked.

"Dr. Pepper."

Everyone else placed their orders. When their drinks were brought, Cadence peered at Morgan's beer. "I had beer once." She told him. "It was nasty."

"When did you have beer?" Her mother asked.

"At Jessica's cousin's Sweet Sixteen." She answered. "Then I made out in the closet with Justin Nelson."

Will inhaled half his beer up his nose, he was laughing so hard. He wasn't the only one, either. Prentiss was hacking into her napkin and Garcia was just laughing outright.

"Cadence!" Jaime exclaimed. "God!"

"What?" Cadence asked wide-eyed. "We were just kissing, its not that big of a deal."

Jaime shook her head and raised her eyes upward. "God help me." She sighed. She looked at her daughter. "Stay out of the closet; that's how I got you."

"So," Cadence looked at Derek, completely changing the subject. "Next week, when I get ungrounded, I'm going to the skate park. It feels like forever since I've been on my board." She sighed.

"How old were you when you started skating?" Agent Rossi asked her.

"Eight." She replied. "My Grandpa got me a skateboard for my eighth birthday."

"Against my better judgment." Jaime interjected.

"Not all of us learned to play an instrument when we were toddlers." Cadence told her.

Spencer looked at Jaime. "What do you play?"

She flushed a little. "The guitar."

Soon after, their food came and everyone was eating and laughing and talking. Spencer looked at Jaime from the corner of his eye. She was eating a burger and laughing at some story JJ was telling. He was glad he had invited her out. Now he just had to screw up the courage to ask her out on a real date.

The night passed slowly. As promised, after she was done eating, Derek and Cadence danced to several dances. She also danced with Rossi and Will.

"She's having a good time." Spencer commented as Cadence and Rossi twirled around the dance floor to a Van Halen song.

Jaime grinned. "Yeah…she's a mess." She looked at him. "Do you think I'm too easy on her?"

Spencer shrugged. "I really can't answer that, not being a parent myself…but I think you're doing pretty good." He looked at Cadence's laughing face, as Dave swung her around. "She sure likes to dance."

"Yeah…" Jaime shot him another grin. "She gets that from her mother."

Spencer felt his stomach flip as a slow song started. "Do…do you, um, wanna dance? With me?"

She smiled. "I'd like that."

His hands shaking, Spencer led Jaime out on the dance floor. He knew the all their friends were watching them, but at that moment, he didn't care.

"This is my favorite song." Jaime whispered in his ear.

_"Show me how you do that trick  
>The one that makes me scream" she said<br>"The one that makes me laugh" she said  
>And threw her arms around my neck<br>"Show me how you do it_  
><em>And I promise you I promise that<br>I'll run away with you  
>I'll run away with you"<em>

Jaime wrapped her arms around his neck, his went to her waist, his hand pressing into the small of her back.

"What's your tattoo?" He asked suddenly.

"What?"

"The tattoo on the small of your back." He whispered. "What is it?"

"Oh." She smiled. Their faces were only inches apart. "It's a fairy. I got it on my Senior trip to Panama City. The same trip that I got pregnant with Cadence."

He looked at her. He had never heard Jaime talk about Cadence's father. "Really?"

"Yeah…" She sighed. "We were only together that one night. I met him on the beach…I didn't even get his last name. Does that bother you?"

"No." he told her. "We all do stupid things when were young."

"Yeah." She agreed. "We do."

_Spinning on that dizzy edge  
>I kissed her face and kissed her head<br>And dreamed of all the different ways I had  
>To make her glow<br>"Why are you so far away?" she said  
>"Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you<br>That I'm in love with you"_

They swayed together, and Spencer felt like everyone else disappeared. It was just him and Jaime on the dance floor. He looked into her green eyes and thought that maybe she felt the same.

_You  
>Soft and only<br>You  
>Lost and lonely<br>You  
>Strange as angels<br>Dancing in the deepest oceans_

_Twisting in the water  
>You're just like a dream<em>

"I really like you, Spencer." Jaime whispered, her breath tickling his ear.

"I like you too." He told her. "A lot." He paused. "Um…are you busy tomorrow night?"

"No…"

"CanItakeyouout?" He asked in a rush.

"What?" She looked at him.

He took a deep breath. "Can…can I take you out? Tomorrow night?"

She grinned at him. "Yes, that sounds like fun."

_Daylight licked me into shape  
>I must have been asleep for days<br>And moving lips to breathe her name  
>I opened up my eyes<br>And found myself alone alone  
>Alone above a raging sea<br>That stole the only girl I loved  
>And drowned her deep inside of me<em>

Morgan, Garcia, Emily, and Cadence watched from their booth. JJ and Will we're dancing, and Dave had made his way to the bar. Cadence giggled when he mom laid her head on Spencer's shoulder.

"Missionaccomplished." Garcia said; she and Morgan bumped fists. Emily smirked.

"You two are regular matchmakers, aren't you?" She asked, taking a sip of her drink.

"You know it." Derek told her, grinning.

_You  
>Soft and only<br>You  
>Lost and lonely<br>You  
>Just like heaven<em>


	7. Chapter Seven

_The look in your eyes when you smile that way  
>The sound of your voice sayin' my name<br>I've been thinkin' about you  
>Just keep thinkin' about you<br>This single minded fascination I've got  
>Do you call it love?<br>If you don't then what?  
>All I know is I don't know what you've done<br>And this train ain't about to jump the track that it's on  
>In the back of my mind there's a secret place<br>But the whole world knows by the smile on my face  
>I've been thinkin' about you<br>Can't stop thinkin' about you_

_-Trisha Yearwood_

* * *

><p>"Where's he taking you?"<p>

Jaime was on the phone with her best friend, Kim. "I don't know." She told her. "He just told me I didn't have to dress up."

"Well, what the hell does that mean?" Kim asked. "God…he's not taking you hiking or anything, is he?"

"First of all, its winter." Jaime reminder her. "And second, he's not really the outdoorsy type of man."

"Right, right." Kim agreed. "Well, I wonder what it is then?"

Kim Albright had been Jaime's best friend since she moved to their hometown ofLeesburg,Virginia, in the fourth grade. The two girls had grown up across the street from one another and now both lived on the outskirts of DC. While Jaime was a working, single mother, Kim was a married, stay-at-home Mom, with three children, all younger than Cadence.

"I don't know." Jaime said again. She had spoken to Spencer on the phone that morning, and all he had told her about their upcoming date was to "dress casual".

"What are you gonna wear, then?" Kim asked. Jaime pilfered through her closet.

"I was thinking about a pair of khakis and that blue and yellow striped polo." Jaime told her.

"Are the pants flare-legged?" Kim asked.

"Yeah." Jaime replied. "Maybe I'll pair them with my brown shoes."

"Ohh, that would be cute. What about your hair?"

Jaime looked at herself in the mirror. "I might wear it in a ponytail…I don't know. What do you think?"

She could hear Kim fiddling with something on the other end of the phone. "I think a ponytail would be good."

"All right." Jaime dug through her underwear draw, pulling out a bra and panties set.

"Are you gonna sleep with him?" Kim asked, almost like she was reading Jaime's mind.

"No!" Jaime insisted. "Not yet…"

"But you're planning on it, eventually, huh?" Kim laughed. "Come on, girl. You know you are."

"Shut up." Jaime said, knowing her friend spoke the truth. She was hoping on, eventually, being with Spencer in that way. "It's not gonna happen tonight."

"I have a question." Kim said. "He's going to pick you up?"

"Uh-huh."

"I thought he didn't have a car, so he's gonna do that?"

"He said he borrowed a friend's car." Jaime told her.

"Oh. So, you think Cadence will behave while you're gone?" Kim asked.

"We talked." Jaime replied. "I told her if I find out she's broken her grounding again, I'm tacking an extra six weeks on. She said she'd be fine, there's a Big Bang Theory marathon on tonight."

"Well, Sheldon should keep her glued to the couch." Kim laughed.

"Hopefully…" Jaime trailed off. "All right, well, I'm gonna go. I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what happens."

"You better!"

When Jaime hung up the phone, she took a deep, calming breath. She was nervous. This would be the first time she would be alone with Spencer and she was nervous. It was already 4:30 and Spencer was supposed to pick her up at 6:00. The first thing she decided to do was take a hot shower. She washed her hair with lemon scented shampoo, shaved her legs, and washed her body.

Jaime stepped from the shower and wrapped a towel around her body. After she had dried off, she rubbed lotion on her legs. She was unsure as to why she was being so meticulous; she had sworn to herself that she would not sleep with him tonight. This was hard for Jaime; it had been so long since she had been with a man. She thought of this while brushing her teeth, what it would feel like to have him run his hands over her body…but, no, she couldn't think like that. The best thing to do was to take it slowly.

Jaime applied some light makeup, then blow dried her hair. After she got dressed, she started to pull her hair up in a ponytail, then stopped. Maybe a braid would be better. She thought for a moment, then quickly braided a Dutch braid into her hair. There, that looked good. She swiped on some light pink lip gloss, then went to find her shoes.

"It's 5:45." Cadence told her, already camped out in front of the television, with snacks and soda, painting her toenails. "He'll be here soon."

"I know." Jaime told her, doing up her laces. She went back into her bedroom and spritzed on some perfume.

"Do I look all right?" She asked her daughter. Cadence nodded.

"Yeah…so you still have no idea where the hell he's taking you?"

"No…and watch your mouth, please." Jaime scolded her gently. Not that it did any good; her daughter had the mouth of a sailor. "You'll be all right for supper?"

"Mom, I'll be fine." Cadence rolled her eyes. "I'll fix a sandwich on the next commercial. Go on your date, have fun with Spencer."

Jaime had to smile at how grown up her daughter sounded. Before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door. She opened the front door and Spencer stood there, holding a bunch of sweetheart roses.

"Hi." He said nervously, holding out the flowers. "Um, these are for you."

"Oh, thank you!" She said, taking them. "There are my favorites! How did you know?"

He shrugged while Cadence tried to hide her laughter on the couch. "A little bird told me. Hello, Cadence." He said to her.

"Hey." She said.

"I'm going to put these in water." Jaime said. She disappeared into the kitchen and Spencer took a quick look around her living room. It was small, but quaint. The walls were painted sage green, with chocolate brown accents. The furniture, a wrap around sofa, also dark brown and a huge entertainment center.

"All right." Jaime came back into the living room. She grabbed her coat and kissed Cadence on the top of the head.

"I won't be too late, okay?"

"Kay."

She and Spencer headed out to the car he was driving, a black Taurus.

"You, um, have a nice home." He told her.

"Thank you." She said. "Did you find it okay?"

"Yeah, I didn't have any problems." He sounded just as nervous as she was. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked very cute, she thought in his navy blue slacks and a light blue button down. They climbed into the car.

"So, where are you taking me?" She asked, grinning at him.

Spencer felt his heart flip-flop. "Um…well, it's a surprise."

"A surprise?" She grinned again. "That's sweet."

They drove through downtown DC, just talking. She giggled when he pulled into the parking lot for The Burger Joint.

"This is my favorite place to eat." He told her.

She smiled. "Really? I've never been here before."

"They have the best burgers in town." He told her. When they got to the front of the restaurant, he held the door open for her.

After they were seated and had had their orders taken, Jaime looked across the little table at him. "I'm glad we're going out tonight." She said.

He blushed. "Me too." He told her. He looked down quickly, like he was embarrassed, and Jaime thought he looked so cute; she just wanted to lean across the table and kiss him.

Unknown to Jaime, Spencer was having similar thought. He thought she looked so pretty, with her hair all braided like that. He didn't want to tell her that Garcia had helped him plan this date.

They talked while they ate, mostly about things at work. He did admit, however, to checking out the first season of True Blood.

"Did you like it?" Jaime asked. He nodded.

"Surprisingly, I did." He said, swirling a French fry around in some catsup. "It's very interesting."

"Meaning…the abundance of sex doesn't bother you?" She laughed.

"No…to quote your daughter, 'I know what's what'." He smiled.

She grinned back at him. "Tell me about your first time." She asked, leaning towards him. "How old were you?"

"I was sixteen." He told her. "I was in my final year at Cal-Tech and I met a freshman girl named Heather. We were…mostly experimenting with each other, I think. We dated the entire year, then I left for M.I.T. and I never saw her again." He shrugged. "What about you?"

She smiled. "Well, I was sixteen, to actually. I was with this boy I grew up with, Scotty Driscoe. He was my first serious boyfriend. We were in the back of his Daddy's Firebird. It was magic."

He laughed, surprised at how comfortable he felt. When they finished, their burgers, he paid and they walked back out to the car.

"Where to now?" She wondered. He smiled at her.

"Surprise, I told you."

She grinned and leaned her head back against the seat. They drove in silence for a few minutes. When he came to a stop, she was surprised.

"The Smithsonian?" She asked.

"Yeah…its another of my favorite places…do you like it?"

"I've only been here once." She admitted. "A long time ago."

They walked around inside, looking at the different exhibits.

"Did you know that there are over 137 million artifacts in the entire museum?" Spencer asked her.

"No," She smiled. "I didn't."

She reached down then, and grasped his hand, interlocking their fingers. He smiled and they walked into the next room, the Natural Museum of American History. Spencer guided her over to the Pop Culture section.

"Oho!" She said, leaning against him. "Dorothy's Ruby Slippers!"

Jaime grinned up at him, her face so close, and Spencer knew what to do next. He leaned down and kissed her. After several minutes, it may have even been days, they broke apart. She smiled again, took his face in her hands and pulled him back to her. And there they kissed, in front of the most famous movie artifact of all time.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Author's Note: Okay, peeps, this is just a filler chapter! More exciting stuff to come!**

* * *

><p><em>Although he may not be the man<br>Some girls think of as handsome  
>To my heart he carries the key<em>

_Won't you tell him please to put on some speed  
>Follow my lead<br>Oh how I need  
>Someone to watch over me<em>

_-Linda Ronstadt_

* * *

><p>"Did you guys do it?" Morgan asked.<p>

"No!" Spencer felt his face turn red. "We just kissed."

"Was there tongue action?" Morgan wiggled his brows and Spencer grinned in spite of himself.

"Yes…yes, there was." He sounded pretty smug. Then he sighed. "I know, technically, there's not supposed to be inter-department dating…but I kinda talked to Hotch and Rossi…"

Morgan grinned. "What did they say?"

"That as long as Jaime and I can keep it professional with during office hours, they don't care what happens between us when we leave this building." Spencer shrugged.

"Aw, that means no shagging in the copy room!" Morgan clapped his young friend on the back. "I'll tell you what; I'll stand guard so you guys can freaky."

Spencer rolled his eyes. "Shut up." He looked across the bull pen, where he could see Jaime talking to Garcia, JJ, and Emily. "You think they're talking about me?"

Derek nodded. "Most definitely."

Derek was right; on the other side of the room, the four women were discussing Reid.

"Is he a good kisser?" JJ asked.

"Yes." Jaime told her. "He's a very good kisser."

"I thought he might be." Prentiss said. They all looked at her. "What? He has a fantastic mouth."

"Yeah…" Jaime sighed happily.

"So are you guys together, or what?" Garcia asked, grinning. Jaime shrugged.

"I don't know…I don't want to rush anything."

"How does Cadence feel about all this?" JJ asked her.

"She seems all right with it." Jaime answered. "She said he was cool."

"He is." Garcia agreed. "I think you two will be good for each other. Especially after his last girlfriend…" She trailed off.

"What?" Jaime asked, looking at each of them. "What was wrong with her?"

"She was a T total bitch." Prentiss said.

"Emily!" JJ exclaimed. Prentiss shrugged.

"What? She was!"

"What was she like?" Jaime asked, leaning forward.

"Her name's Allyson." Garcia said. "He met her at Best Buy…she was buying a new laptop and he helped her pick one out. They didn't date very long, but…she was really stuck up, like she didn't want anyone to know they were seeing each other. I don't know; she was just a real snob."

Before Jaime could comment on this, Hotch was calling them all to the conference room.

"All right," JJ said, once they were all settled. "This case is fromSpeake,Alabama." She indicated to the picture on the screen, a young girl, not much older than Cadence, grinned out at them. "Hanna Wilcox was abducted from her bus stop this morning. The school notified her parents when she didn't attend her first hour class. They eventually came to realization that Hanna didn't ride the bus at all this morning and some other kids remember seeing a black van driving back and forth in front of her house."

"All right." Hotch said. "Wheels up in thirty."

Jaime sighed. She knew that dating Spencer would have its drawbacks, mainly the fact that he had to be gone for days on end. He smiled reassuringly at her and placed his hand on her thigh.

"I won't be gone long." He whispered. She reached down and grasped his hand.

"I know." She said. "Will you call me when you have a chance?"

"Of course." He said.

When it was time for them to leave for the airstrip, Jaime walked with Spencer to the elevators. Hotch glanced at the two of them, cleared his throat, and herded the rest of them team onto the elevator.

"Be in the lobby in five minutes, Reid." He told him as the elevator doors closed.

Jaime grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'll miss you." She said.

"I'll miss you, too." He replied, pulling her to him for a kiss.

At that moment he wished he wasn't leaving on this case. He wished they were in his apartment and that he could scoop Jaime up and carry her to his bed. Of course, wishing does no good, and Hotch had only given him five minutes to say his goodbyes.

"I'll call you first chance I get." He promised. She kissed him again.

"All right. When you get back, will you come to my house for dinner?" She blushed a little. "Cadence wants you too, also."

"Yeah, that sounds good." He told her. "I think my five minutes are almost up…"

"I know." She said. She nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck for a minute. "All right, all right. You better go."

He brushed his hand over her cheek. "Bye."

"Bye." She said as he got on the elevator. "Be careful."

"I'll be extra careful." He promised. "I know what's waiting for me when I get home."

She smiled at him as the door slid shut.

When Jaime got home that evening, she found Cadence doing her homework at the kitchen table.

"Hey, kiddo." She said, kissing the top of her head.

"Hey, Mom." Cadence looked up from her text book. "Did you invite Spencer for dinner?"

"Not tonight, they had to leave for a case inAlabama." Jaime explained, digging through the freezer. She shut the door, realizing she didn't feel like cooking. "He said he'll come as soon as they get back. You know what, how about we order a pizza tonight?"

"From Lombardi's?" Cadence asked, referring their favorite place.

"Yeah." Her mom grinned. "Does that sound good?"

"Yes!" Cadence replied. "Can I order it?"

Jaime shrugged. "Go for it."

While Cadence was ordering the pizza, Jaime went back to her bedroom to change. She grabbed a pair of fuzzy pink pajama pants and an old, Soundgarden t-shirt, left over from her high school days.

She decided while they were waiting for the pizza, she would call Kim real quick.

"It's me." She said as soon as her friend answered.

"Hey." Kim said. "What's up?"

"Spencer and the rest of the team just left forAlabama." She said. "It's weird. We've only been dating for a few days and I already miss him like crazy."

"Hee-hee." Kim chuckled. "You really like him, don't you?"

"I really do." Jaime sighed. "I really do."


	9. Chapter Nine

_Forgetting all I'm lacking, completely incomplete  
>I'll take your invitation, you take all of me<br>I'm falling even more in love with you  
>Letting go of all I've held on to<br>I'm standing here until you make me move  
>I'm hanging by a moment here with you<br>I'm living for the only thing I know  
>I'm running and not quite sure where to go<br>And I don't know what I'm diving into  
>Just hanging by a moment here with you<em>

_-Lifehouse_

* * *

><p>Spencer was nervous. Of course, he was usually nervous, but this was a heart-about-to-jump-from-his-chest kind of nervous. He was driving Damon's Taurus again; he really needed to get his own car. When his ancient Volvo when ka-poot, he just never got around to replacing it. Why would he need to? He rode the train everywhere, there wasn't a place in the city he needed to drive to, until now.<p>

He pulled the car into Jaime's driveway. Her house was small, one of the only single story homes in the entire sub-division, he had noticed. He parked behind the red Prius and climbed slowly from the car, grabbing the bottle of sparkling grape juice he had brought. Morgan had told him to bring wine, but he had reminded him of Cadence, so Garcia had piped up and suggested the juice.

Spencer knocked, softly on the door and it flew open. Cadence was standing there, grinning at him, wearing, for some odd reason, a Sock Monkey hat on her head.

"Hi." She said, opening the door wider so he could come in.

"Hello." He smiled at her and she grinned back.

"So…you and my Mom, huh?" She asked. He felt his face heat up.

"Um…yeah. Does it bother you?"

She shrugged. "Nope. I like you all right. Hey, if you guys get married, can we get a dog?"

"Uh…"

"Cadence!" Jaime scolded from the kitchen.

Spencer breathed a sigh of relief; saved by the girlfriend.

"Sorry about that." Jaime told hi, rolling her eyes. She kissed his cheek, ignoring the gagging noises her daughter was making, and took the bottle of juice.

"It's okay." He said. Cadence slipped up beside him.

"I'm supposed to keep you company until supper's finished." She informed him in a robotic voice.

"Okay…"

Jaime rolled her eyes. "I'm fixing bacon stuffed ravioli."

"Sounds good." He said, smiling.

"You wanna see the rest of the house?" Cadence asked him. He shrugged.

"Sure." He slipped off his shoes and Cadence took his coat, laying it over the edge of the couch.

So far, he had only seen the living room. "This is the kitchen." She told him, leading him into the room. It was done in red and white, with those fat, Italian chefs. Jaime stood at the stove, stirring something that smelled delicious.

"Getting the tour?" She asked, grinning at him.

"Yeah." He told her.

"Come on." Cadence grabbed his hand, pulling him down the hallway.

It was covered in a precession of photos, most of Cadence. There were baby pictures, pictures of her as a toddler, then school pictures. These started with her as a grinning preschooler, in pink overalls and blonde pigtails, and went right up to what Spencer guessed was her latest school photo. There were also pictures of her and Jaime together; once again going from the time she was a baby up until recently. There was one picture, just a snapshot, at the very end of the hallway that stuck out to him. It was just of Jaime, sort of. In the picture, she couldn't have been more than eighteen. She was leaning against an old wooden fence, grinning and cupping her hugely pregnant belly. She wore a pair of low slung jeans and a tiny black tank-top that totally exposed her bump. She looked extremely beautiful.

"This is the bathroom." Cadence told him, pulling him from his thoughts.

It was a small bathroom, decorated in rubber ducks. It was decidedly girly, he thought,

and tried not to notice the box of tampons on the back of the toilet or the slinky nighty hanging on the doorknob.

"Come on, I'll show you my room." Cadence said, tugging on his hand again. It was directly across from the bathroom.

Her bedroom looked like any other teenage girls room, he imagined. The purple walls were covered in posters of actors and musicians. It was messy, with clothes laying everywhere. Her skateboard stood in its revered place in the corner.

"You wanna see my Mom's room?" Cadence asked with a slightly wicked smile.

"I…uh…"

"Just come on."

She opened the door next to the bathroom. It was a bit larger than Cadence's room and was done in what Spencer could only describe as oldHollywood. The walls were a dark red, a large canopy bed stood in the middle of the room. It was covered in red, black, and white bedding. There was a matching black dresser and armoire set. A vanity table sat near the window.

"Feels like you just walked into Vivien Leigh's bedchambers, doesn't it?" Cadence asked, twisting her lips.

"A little." He said, his eyes lingering on the bed. This is where Jaime spent her nights, where hopefully soon, they would-.

"You wanna go back to the living room or are you gonna stand here and stare at my Mom's bed all night?" Once again, Cadence's voice brought him crashing back to reality.

"Uh…"

Cadence rolled her green eyes. "Let's go." She bounced down the hallway. "Two and Half Men is on. You wanna watch with me?"

"Shouldn't we help your Mom?" He asked.

Cadence shook her head. "She doesn't like anyone in there while she's cooking."

The two of them sat on the couch and watched reruns, laughing at Charlie and Alan's antics. After about forty-five minutes, Jaime called them.

"Time to eat!" She said.

Spencer followed Cadence into the kitchen. The table was all set, the plates full of food. She had poured each of them some of the juice he brought.

Spencer had never had bacon ravioli, but it was very good. They also had French bread and roasted vegetables. The three of them sat around the table, chatting. Cadence filled them in on her school day, talking about a boy in her science class she thought was cute and Jaime talked about this funny old lady she had seen at the grocery store. Spencer smiled and chewed his food; is this what it felt like to have a family? It was a change for him; he usually ate his meals alone, his nose stuck in a book.

Supper went quickly. When they were done eating, Jaime asked Cadence to clean up the kitchen.

She sighed. "All right, fine."

"I can help-." Spencer started to say, but Jaime cut him off.

"No, you're our guest. Cadence will clean it up…at least, she will if she wants to go to the mall with her friends."

Cadence rolled her eyes. "Mom, they're not gonna be here till seven. I'll be done by then."

Once they were sitting in the living room, Spencer looked at Jaime. "She's going to the mall?"

"Yeah, in about thirty minutes." Jamie grinned and squeezed his hand. "So…we'll be…all alone."

Spencer felt his insides squirm slightly. Not that he didn't want to be alone with her, but would she expect…that. Jaime must have seen what he was thinking, written all over his face. She laughed.

"Oh…I didn't mean for that, Spencer." She told him, lowering her voice. "We're not quite there yet, are we?"

"I didn't think so…but…" He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. "Soon, I think we will be."

She smiled, heat rushing to her cheeks. "Soon." She agreed. She snuggled up against him and they watched the TV for a while.

"I'm done!" Cadence announced twenty minutes later. "I'm gonna go change before they get here, okay?"

"Okay." Jaime rested her head against Spencer's chest.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Jaime answered it. It was girl, roughly Cadence's age, with short, spiky black hair. "Hi, Ms. Walsh." She said.

"Hi, Nikki." Jaime told her. "Cadence!" She called. "Nikki's here!"

"Coming!"

"Oh, Nikki, this is my boyfriend, Spencer." Jaime introduced them. "Spencer, this is Nikki Holden, she's Cadence's best friend."

"Hi." He said. The girl smiled at him.

"Hey."

Cadence rushed into the living room then. "I'll be back by 9:30, okay Mom?" She said, pulling her coat on.

"All right, be careful." Jaime told her. She looked at Nikki. "Your brother is driving?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, we just gotta stop and pick up Jessica."

"All right." Jaime smiled, a little sadly; as she watched the two teens rush outside.

She joined Spencer back on the couch. "Alone at last…" She said.

"Yep." He noticed her staring at him. "What?"

"Are you just gonna sit there or are we gonna makeout like teenagers?"

He grinned and leaned toward her.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Author's Note: Warning! Sex scene in this chapter! Nothing too graphic, but still. Also, the song at the beginning, you might recognize as the theme song from True Blood.**

* * *

><p><em>When you came in the air went out<em>

_And every shadow filled up with doubt_

_I don't know who you think you are_

_But before the night is through_

_I wanna do bad things with you_

_I'm the kind who sits up in his room_

_Heart sick and eyes filled up with blue_

_I don't know what you've done to me_

_But I know this much is true_

_I wanna do bad things with you_

_Real bad things with you_

_-Jace Everett_

* * *

><p><em>In downtown DC, the Man slunk quietly down the alleyway; his first target, only maybe twenty feet ahead of him. She was a pretty girl, for what she was: a prostitute, a young one, not much over fourteen. She wore a short skirt, a skimpy top and sky-high heels. He supposed, on a woman, it would look sexy; on this child, however, it was just comical. The Man wondered why she wasn't freezing; it was <em>**January**_, for crying out loud. The girl stopped to light a cigarette. It was then the Man decided to make his move. He approached her, touching her shoulder. She jumped._

_"You scared me, mister." She said, her young voice already ravaged. She waved the cigarette at him. "Let me finish this, then we'll get down to business, all right?"_

_He nodded. It weird the girl out, the way he looked at her, the way he didn't speak. She quickly stubbed out her smoke and took the man's hand. The quicker she got this over with, the better._

_As soon as the girl turned her back, the Man struck. He hit her soundly over the head with a heavy flashlight that he had pulled quickly from his bag. There was a dull thud and the girl crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. The Man scooped her and slung her over his shoulder, much like you might carry a heavy sack of dog feed. _

_Then he quickly disappeared into the darkness with her._

* * *

><p>Jaime stood in the shower, letting the hot water stream over her. Spencer would be here soon and tonight…tonight was going to be the night. They had been on three more dates and he had had supper at their house four times. The last time they went out to eat, Cadence had come with them. When they got back to the house, after Cadence had gone to bed, Jaime and Spencer had fooled around on the couch, but they still hadn't gone all the way.<p>

That was going to change tonight, Jaime thought, smiling to herself. Cadence was at a sleepover party and Spencer and Jaime would the house to themselves all night.

When she climbed out of the shower, she rubbed herself down with shea butter. What she was about to was going to take a lot of guts and she was nervous. She quickly blow dried her hair and pulled it back in a loose bun and quickly applied some makeup, using a heavy hand with the eye makeup. Then she glanced nervously at the Fredrick's ofHollywoodbad sitting on her toilet. It held the lingerie she and Kim had picked out earlier that day. She had never done anything before and her stomach was full of butterflies. She pulled the sheer, lilac colored babydoll out of the bag, along with the flimsy matching panties. Taking a very deep breath, she put the lingerie on, then looked at herself in the mirror. Well, now that wasn't so bad. The nightgown, if you could call it that, just brushed the tops of her thighs, and it was completely see-through, except for the bra part.

She was just putting the finishing touches on her ensemble when the doorbell rang. Jaime jumped a foot in the air, and then went to answer it.

"Hey, what took you so long-?" Spencer's voice faded as he took in his girlfriend's getup. "Um…"

Jaime opened the door wider, so he could come in. "You like?" She asked nervously.

Spencer could only nod. He didn't think he'd ever seen a sexier woman. Jaime bit her lip and grinned at him, and he swore his heart stuttered.

"Wha…where's Cadence?" He finally managed to ask.

"She's at a friend's house, having a sleepover." Jaime answered, twirling a piece of hair that had fallen from her bun. "She'll be gone all night."

"Oh…" She had no idea how badly he wanted to jump her right then and just take her on the living room floor.

Smiling again, she walked towards him and placed his hands on her hips. "It's okay." She whispered, leaning towards him. "You can touch me."

Those seemed to be the magic words. Spencer leaned forward and kissed her, hard. She started at the force of it, and then kissed him back.

"Bedroom?" He whispered, almost pleadingly.

"Yes." She told him.

Afterward, she rested her head on his bare chest. "Well…that was fun, huh?"

He grinned at her and kissed her hair. "Yeah…can we do it again?"

She giggled. "In a little while. Give me a chance to rest, you horndog."

He snorted. "Out of all the names I've been called in my life, that's a first."

She looked up at him. "Really? You seem so…experienced."

He grinned again. "I read a lot of books."

"I had no idea thekamasutra was part of your library." She joked.

He smiled that sexy smile. "No?" he pulled her up so that she was straddling him. "How about if I show you what I've learned from it?"

They spent most of the night making love. The rest of the time they spent cuddling and talking. Jaime lay on her stomach, the blankets just barely covering her butt. Spencer was propped up on one of her many pillows and he could finally make out her tattoo. It was a fairy, just like she had said, leaning over a mushroom. It was actually quite cute. This made Spencer think of a question he had been meaning to ask her for awhile.

"What were you like in high school?"

Jaime looked at him, a little surprised. "I was a lot like Cadence, actually." She said. "I was most definitely not part of the popular crowd."

He snorted. "Join the club. Of course, I was only nine when I started high school, so go figure."

She grinned. "I just…I was purposely rebellious against it, I think. Bobby, my brother, he was the football teams star quarterback and everyone worshipped the ground he walked on. So I kinda enjoyed being his freaky little sister, with my ripped up jeans and Doc Martens, smoking under the bleachers."

"You wore Doc Martins?" He asked. She rolled her eyes.

"Yep, and Slayer t-shirts." She grinned again. "I was all about grunge in my school days."

"I've heard." He said dryly.

She giggled and propped her chin in her hand. "What about you? When I was in high school, you were at…Cal-Tech?"

"Yeah, from '93 to '97. Then I was at M.I.T from '97 to 2000." He told her.

"Okay, so what were you like at Cal-Tech?" She asked.

He grinned. "Busy. No, seriously, I was happy. For the first time in my school, career, I was happy. I got a few odd looks for being so young, but for the most part, no one cared that I was a kid. I was there to learn and so were they. High school…high school was hell for me." He rubbed his hand over his eyes, his smile gone. "Everyday was torture."

She made a sympathetic noise. "I know, baby." She laid her hand on his knee. "But think of it like this…you have an awe-worthy job, you're in bed with a hot woman, and you live in a nice apartment. Where do you think those jocks are? Oh sure, a few of them might have made something of themselves, but the majority of them peaked in high school. Torturing you was the highlight of their lousy lives. You save lives on a weekly basis. You're a hero. That boy that tied you to the goal post? He probably flips burgers."

Spencer grinned. "I have to say, I never thought of it like that."

"Well, you should. You're a wonderful person, Spencer." She told him, resting her head against his leg. "You're an awesome boyfriend and I think you'd make a great father." She grinned up at his surprised face. "Cadence adores you."

"She does?"

Jaime rolled her eyes. "Of course she does. I think she wants us to get married." She laughed. "She's never had a father figure in her life. She tries to act like it doesn't matter to her, but it does."

"She looks at me like a…a dad?" He was shocked.

"Well, not exactly a dad, yet, but a big brother." Jaime tickled her hair against the back of his knee. "You'll get there. She respects you, and that's saying something."

Jaime crawled up and lay down beside him and he yawned. "I'm worn out."

"I know, I am too. I'm surprised we're still awake."

He grinned again. "Are you kidding? I'm surprised the walls are still standing."

And with that, Jaime shut off the lamp and they went to sleep.

Spencer rolled over. For a second, he didn't know where he was. What the hell was up with the canopy…oh, that's right. He was in Jaime's bed. He looked down at her, sprawled across the bed, asleep, her mouth half open. He chuckled; it was cute. Then he glanced at the clock. It was already after ten.

Spencer slid quietly from the bed and grabbed his boxers and undershirt, putting them on. Then he slipped out of the room. He thought it might be nice if he made Jaime some breakfast, so he poked through the cabinets, to see what she had. He grabbed a box of blueberry pancake mix and a package of breakfast sausage from the fridge.

Spencer was in the process of cooking when the front door banged open and Cadence strolled in, still in her pajamas. She stopped dead in her tracks and dropped her overnight bag in shock, upon seeing him in the kitchen.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" She asked, not in a mean way, but in a curious way. She quickly took in his clothing, or the lack of it, I should say. "Holly shitz balls! You spent the night with my Mom, didn't you?"

"I…uh…yes?"

"Ha!" Cadence was cracking up now. "Oh my God, did you guys do the dance with no pants?"

"Shh!" He told her, instead of answering outright. "Your mother's still asleep."

"And you're making breakfast." She looked in the pan and nodded appreciatively. "Sweet. You need some help?"

He nodded at her forgotten overnight bag, lying in the floor. "Go put your stuff in your room, and then you can come back and set the table."

"Ohh, acting like a Daddy already." She said, lightly kissing his cheek. "I'm gonna call you Dad from now on."

"Uh…you don't have to do that." He said, a little shocked.

She shrugged, grabbing her stuff. "I know."


	11. Chapter Eleven

_The taste of love is sweet _

_When hearts like ours meet _

_I fell for you like a child  
>oh, but the fire went wild...<em>

_I fell in to a burning ring of fire  
>I went down, down, down<br>and the flames went higher.  
>And it burns, burns, burns<br>the ring of fire  
>the ring of fire.<em>

_-Johnny Cash_

* * *

><p><em>The Man sighed in frustration. Why wouldn't they notice? It had been four months! He had taken three girls, and here in their own city, too. Yet they failed to notice anything amiss. He sighed again. He supposed he could step it up a notch, maybe leave the next one on the steps of a church…his church, the one he attended. Then they would notice. <em>

_They would have to._

* * *

><p>"You're going down, Busta!" Cadence announced.<p>

"You wish!" Six-year-old Jack Hotchner told her.

They, along with Cadence's BFF Nikki, were playing Just Dance on Cadence's wii. Even little Henry was bopping along, with some help from his daddy.

The entire team, and their families, had gathered for a barbeque at the Walsh household. Technically, I suppose it could be referred to as the Walsh/Reid household, since Spencer was practically living there.

He and Morgan were manning the grill. Well, Morgan was showing him how to man the grill. Will, Rossi, and Hotch were watching the kids play their dancing game and cheering them on. The four women, Jaime, JJ, Emily, and Garcia, were in the kitchen, preparing some side dishes.

"If you guys do that New Kids on the Block song one more time, I'm gonna throw up." Dave told the kids. "Pick a good one this time."

Cadence handed him her controller. "You pick."

He looked at it like it was a slug. "I don't know how to work this thing."

"Newfangled contraptions too much for you, Dave?" Will joked. "Just push the arrows."

Rossi shot him a Look. "I would have gotten it."

"Sure." Cadence said and Nikki giggled.

"Ahh! Surfin' Bird, Mr. Rossi! Let's do Surfin' Bird!" She said.

"Fine." Dave stopped on the song and gave the controller back to Cadence.

_"Well, a bird, bird, bird, b-b-bird is the word_!"

The three kids danced to the song, while the adults looked on, laughing. Jack turned to his dad and sang:

_"Jack's gonna tell you about the bird!"_

Hotch laughed, glad to see his son so upbeat.

"Food's ready!" Reid announced.

They were eating outside, in the warm April evening.

Once everyone was settled and their plates were all full, Reid cleared his throat.

"Well, um, the reason Jaime and I asked you all here tonight was not to celebrate the warm weather." He started. He looked around the table at each of his friends, then at Jaime, who smiled and nodded at him. "We're um…well, we're getting married."

_"AUGHHH!"_ Garcia bounced in her seat. "I knew it! I knew as soon as I saw you two together that you were meant for each other!"

Cadence was feeling smug; she already knew, of course. They had told her right after Spencer had popped the question. She turned to him. "Does this mean I can have a dog?"

He laughed. "Sure."

_"Whoot-whoot!_" She raised her hands in a V is for Victory gesture.

"I can't believe it." Morgan said, taking a bite of his burger. "Dr. Reid, settlin' down."

"Another one bites the dust." Rossi agreed and the whole table laughed.

"How did this happen?" JJ asked, looking between the two.

"Well, just last night." Jaime answered. "Spencer took me to The Jade Dragon."

"I was here," Cadence cut in. "Watching Supernatural on the CW. But they brought me a doggie bag."

"_Anyway,_" Jaime flung a corn kernel at her daughter for interrupting. "The whole meal was totally normal, except that I noticed Spencer seemed really jittery."

"When is he not jittery?" Derek joked, earning him a jab in the ribs from Prentiss's elbow.

"I was nervous!" Spencer said.

"Then the waitress brought our fortune cookies, and I open mine and instead of a fortune inside, there was a little note that said 'Will you marry me?'. So I look up and Spencer's on one knee with this."

Jaime held out her hand, and showed the ring she had just put back on her finger.

"Ohh." Garcia breathed. "Congratulations, you guys."

Cadence threw her napkin at Spencer. "You'll be my new Daddy!"

"I know." He grinned. "And I plan to fulfill my evil stepfather duty."

Cadence and Nikki both giggled. "You said _duty!"_

Prentiss pushed their plates towards them. "Why don't you two eat?"

The meal went on, everyone laughing and talking, a definite air of excitement. Jaime was telling JJ, Garcia, and Prentiss what she wanted for the wedding. The Hotch's phone rang and everyone fell silent. They all knew what this meant. Hotch excused himself from the table, but the conversation was stunted anyway.

He came back a few minutes later. "They need all of us in the office. Now." He looked at his son. "I don't know what to do with Jack-."

"I'll take him home with us." Will cut in. "Jaime, Cade and Nikki can come over for awhile, too, if you like."

Jaime cut her eyes to her daughter, who shrugged and nodded. "That's fine. I'll pick them up when I can."

Hotch laid his hand on Will's shoulder. "Thank you. The case is near here, so I'll be by to get him as soon as possible."

Will nodded. "It's fine."

The team left quickly, JJ riding in with Jaime and Spencer. Will kept Henry and Jack entertained while Cadence and Nikki quickly cleaned up the dinner mess. Then they loaded into the LaMontagne's SUV and headed to Will and JJ's house.

Once they got to the office, JJ followed Hotch and Rossi into her office. The rest of them team went into the conference room.

"I wonder what's going on?" Garcia said. "I'm kinda nervous."

"It must be bad." Derek said, leaning his head back.

"It is." Hotch said as he, JJ, and Rossi came into the room.

It was bad. The body of a fourteen-year-old prostitute had been found on the steps of an Assembly of God church. It was a small, country church, about forty-five minutes south of DC. She looked like she had been held captive for days before she was killed, but there hadn't been any sexual activity.

"We're going to head out there right now." Hotch told them. He looked at Jaime and Reid. "I'm sorry. I know you two wanted to celebrate, but-."

Jaime held up her hand. "It's okay." She said. "We'll celebrate when this creep is caught."

She couldn't make herself look at the image on the screen. The girl, with her long blonde hair, looked too much like her own child for comfort. She could feel Spencer's tense body beside her and guess that he felt the same. She sighed, glad that the girls had gone home with Will; she knew she'd be here, doing paperwork, most of the night.

Spencer sighed and rested his head against the window. He and Morgan we're going to the church to talk to the pastor, a Brother Eugene Wilson. When they pulled into the parking lot of Pleasant Hill Assembly, he saw that it was indeed a small, country church. It was actually quite quaint. The front steps were marked off, but other than that, it looked normal. He and Morgan could hear the sounds of hymns being sung.

Spencer followed Morgan to the side entrance. As soon as they stepped inside, the music doubled in sound and they could see that they had interrupted choir practice. Spencer noticed that the ten members of the choir all looked to be under twenty-five. One girl in particular stood out. Not only was she very pretty, but she had a high, sweet singing voice.

The past or hurried over. "You're the men from the F.B.I?" He asked. He was a tall man, probably early fifties, with salt and pepper hair.

"I'm Derek Morgan, this is Dr. Reid." Morgan told him.

"Let's go in my office." Br. Eugene said to them. "The music isn't so loud in there."

Once they were in the small room, right off the platform, he indicated for the two men to sit down. "I'm sorry for the choir." He said. "We just wanted to try and keep things as normal as possible."

"That's understandable." Spencer told him. "Did any of the children see…?"

"No." Br. Eugene said quickly. "Thank God. I was the one…who found the girl. I was dropping my children off for choir practice. My daughter, Grace, sings a lot of lead vocals."

Spencer thought of the blonde girl he had noticed, the one with the singing voice like a bell.

They spoke to the pastor for awhile longer, then took their lead. As they were leaving, the girl was singing alone. Spencer slowed to listen.

_"What can wash away my sins?_

_Nothing but the blood of Jesus_

_What can make me whole again?_

_Nothing but the blood of Jesus"_

Spencer sighed and followed Morgan out.


	12. Chapter Twelve

_You're hiding something, _

_'Cause it's burning through your eyes  
>I try to get it out, <em>

_But all I hear from you are lies_

_-New Found Glory_

* * *

><p><em>The Man felt like banging his head against the wall. He had certainly gotten their attention, but they still didn't understand his message. He wasn't trying to hurt these girls, he needed to save them! Why did no one see that? Maybe…maybe he should take a girl a little closer to home. Maybe one that no one would suspect…<em>

_The Man knew then who it had to be. She was a little younger than the other's, but she would be perfect._

* * *

><p>Grace Wilson was walking home from school, taking her usual shortcut through the wooded area behind her house. She was lost in her thoughts, thinking of a boy in her American History class. She knew as soon as she got home, she was going to rush right up to her big sister's room and ask for her advice. Beth was eighteen, she knew all about boys. Of course, she had had a steady boyfriend for two years.<p>

Grace was so caught up in these thoughts, that she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her from behind until they were right up on her. She turned quickly, and then smiled when she saw who it was.

"You scared me to death!" She told him. He grinned.

"I just came to help you." He said. She frowned; what was he talking about?

"Help me with what?" She asked slowly. It was then that she saw the heavy, metal flashlight in his hand. It was already splattered with something…blood, Grace realized in panic. The force of what was about to happen hit her like a freight train.

"Y-you?" She stuttered, as it all clicked into place. "Those girls…it was you?"

"I had too." He said quietly, pleadingly. "I had to help them. Now, I'm going to help you."

He brought the flashlight down over Grace's head and she knew no more.

* * *

><p>"We've got to go!" Hotch came running into the police station. "Another girl's been taken."<p>

"Who?" Prentiss asked.

"Grace Wilson, the Br. Eugene's youngest daughter."

"What?" Spencer sat up from where he had been lightly dozing. He thought of the young blonde girl. "But…that's…she's not the kind of girl he usually takes! How do we even know this is our Unsub?"

"He left a note."

At theWilsonhome, things were in total disarray. Lucy and Eugene Wilson we're in complete shock.

"Why would he take Gracie?" Lucy had sobbed to Morgan. "She…she…" She trailed off, unable to finish.

Reid was talking to the three olderWilsonkids: Beth, who was eighteen, and Noah and Jonah, who were both fifteen. Beth was being comforted by her boyfriend, Bryce.

"Who would do this?" Beth asked, leaning into her boyfriend, who stroked her blonde hair. "She's just a little girl!"

"We should have been with her." One of the twins said. Spencer thought it was Noah, but he couldn't tell, they looked so much alike, both blonde haired and blue-eyed.

"Did Grace walk home by herself everyday?" He asked. The other twin nodded.

"No, we all always cut through the woods to get home." He said in a hollow voice. "Usually, we walk with her, but I had hockey today and Noah had debate."

"And I was working after school." Beth added. "I'm a part time cashier at SuperFoodTown." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Do you have kids, Dr. Reid?"

He shook his head, then shrugged. "Well, my fiancé has a daughter that's thirteen, Cadence."

JJ stayed with theWilsonfamily while the rest of the team headed back to the police station.

"Look at this note." Morgan was saying. "It really seems like the Unsub knows this family."

"He knows them well enough to know their schedule." Rossi said. "How close to the family would you have to be to know that both boys had after school activities on Tuesdays and that she would be alone."

"The note says he trying to save them." Hotch said. "He took the other girls because they were prostitutes; he thought he was saving them from that. But why Grace? She was a good girl from a religious family. Why take her?"

This was the question that was on everyone's mind.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Author's Note: Okay, another short chapter, I know. Sorry. I've just been a bit distracted lately. Also, this chapter jumps around a lot. Well, I hope you enjoy it! Let me know!**

* * *

><p><em>In my eyes, indisposed<em>

_In disguises no one knows_

_Hides the face, lies the snake_

_And the sun in my disgrace_

_Boiling heat, summer stench_

_Beneath the black the sky looks dead_

_Call my name through the cream_

_And I'll hear you scream_

_Black hole sun, won't you come_

_And was away the rain?_

_Black hole sun, won't you come_

_Won't you come?_

_-Soundgarden_

* * *

><p><em>The Man felt sick. He had just heard about bits of the profile the F.B.I had given. They knew it was someone from the church. He didn't know how they knew this, but they did. It was that freak Dr. Reid. God didn't intend for a man to be that smart. Well, he had heard that the freak had a stepdaughter back in DC. She was just about the right age. Maybe he should pay her a visit.<em>

* * *

><p>Grace awoke in a dirty cage. She looked down at her hands and feet. They were tied up. She felt silent tears slide down her face. She couldn't believe this…how could it be him? She had known him her entire life, almost. She knew his parents, went to school with his brother. How could it be him?<p>

* * *

><p>Cadence was walking home from the skate park. She took a deep breath, breathing in the mid-April air. She loved spring; it was a time for new beginnings, and she and her mother were certainly getting that. She couldn't believe it had only been five months since Spencer had come into their lives and changed everything. Cadence had realized how much she had wanted a Dad until she had one. Spencer was pretty great; her grades had gone up, at least.<p>

She took another breath; she could smell the honeysuckle from someone's garden wall, and something else. She was so intent on identifying this other scent that she didn't hear the footsteps quickly approaching her until it was too late. Then she heard a strange thud. What was it? Pain exploded behind her eyes and she fell to the ground.

* * *

><p>Spencer felt his phone vibrate. He checked the ID, it was Jaime. That was strange; she never called while he was working a case, she always let him call her when he had a free minute.<p>

"Hello?" He answered, earning a dirty look from Hotch.

"Spencer?" Jaime's voice came from the other end. "Oh, God, Cadence is gone!"

"Gone?" He asked, confused. "What do you mean gone?"

"He's got her! That man, who ever you guys are dealing with now, he has Cadence!" Jaime's voice was high and panicked. "Oh, God, he's got my baby!"

"Wait, Jaime, slow down!" Spencer instructed. "How do you know the Unsub has Cadence?"

At this sentence, the rest of the team looked at him in shock.

"There was a note!" Jaime began to sob; he could barely make out her words. "A note in the mailbox. He said he had Cadence, along with the girl you're looking for!"

"I'm coming." He told her. "Stay calm, I'll be there in an hour."

He hung up the phone. "He's got Cadence." He said, feeling the color drain from his face. "There was a note…he's got her."

"I'll drive you back to DC." Hotch told him. He turned to Rossi. "You can handle things here for awhile?"

"Yeah." Rossi said, flashing worried eyes at Morgan. "Yeah, we can handle things. Go get Jaime, bring her back here. We'll be fine."

"Call." Spencer told them. "Call…if you hear anything."

* * *

><p>"Well," A voice over Cadence's head drawled. "Nice to have some company."<p>

Cadence blinked. What had happened? She sat up. Looking at her, less than two feet away, was another girl. She was roughly Cadence's own age, blonde, with that goody-goody look that Cadence usually tried to avoid.

"Who are you?" Cadence asked. "Where the hell am I?"

Grace chose to ignore the cursing. They were in a dire situation; after all, she didn't feel the need to picky. "I'm Grace Wilson." She said.

Cadence gaped at her. "You're…you're that missing girl! The one that Spencer and everybody is looking for!"

"Yeah." Grace said sadly. "Who's Spencer?"

"He's my Mom's fiancé." Cadence explained. She didn't know why they were being so calm; they were tied up in a cage by some weirdo, but right now just didn't seem like the time to freak out. "He works with the F.B.I."

"Is he a young guy?" Grace asked. "Brown hair, kinda skinny?"

"Yeah." Cadence nodded.

"I saw him." Grace said. "Right after my Dad found that girl."

"You mean the girl that was killed by the same creep that has us?" Cadence asked, a sardonic twist to her lips.

"That'd be the one." Grace nodded.

* * *

><p>"This type of Unsub will typically insert himself into the investigation." Hotch said, addressing the entire police force. "It's most likely someone you all know. He had to know the Wilson family well enough to know that Grace walked home by herself on Tuesdays only."<p>

"What about this latest abduction?" One of the police officers asked. "How does that fit in?"

"We believe," Morgan began. "That seeing as that girl belongs to two of our own, that was a direct attack on us. A warning."

"We're going to have to look into everyone in theWilson's life." Rossi said.

"You know something I find strange?" JJ said to Prentiss.

"What?" Prentiss looked up at her.

"How did this Unsub know about Cadence?" JJ started to pace. "I mean, she's not Reid's real daughter. Hell, she isn't even legally his stepdaughter, yet. How did he know?"

Emily felt like slapping herself on the forehead. In their rush to find Cadence, no one had stopped to think about this. "It had to be someone who heard Reid mention Cadence, who heard him talk about her."

JJ nodded. "Exactly."

* * *

><p>"You know this guy?" Cadence asked Grace, as they huddled together. Grace nodded.<p>

"He's my big sister's boyfriend." She said.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

_Sick and twisted Sick and twisted  
>very bad<br>Crippled, crazy, sick and sad  
>Yes, a fouler thing has not existed<br>Yes, it's true I'm that sick and twisted_

_-Gwar_

* * *

><p>"Who did you talk to Cadence about?" Prentiss asked Spencer quickly. He looked at her, confused.<p>

"What do you mean?" He asked. Emily knew that grief and stress were making him stupid. She shook her head and slanted a look at Jaime, who was clutching Spencer's side, looking terrified.

"Cadence isn't really your daughter." Jaime said, her voice ravaged from crying. "She's not even your legal stepdaughter yet. It's not like someone could run a search on you and find out about her. So this Unsub must have heard you mention her and went from there."

Spencer paused, surprised he hadn't thought of this. "The only time I talked about her was at theWilsonhome." He said slowly, thinking. "Beth Wilson asked me if I had any children and I said my fiancé had a daughter."

"Who else was there" Morgan asked.

"Uh…well, Beth." Spencer thought for a second. "TheWilsontwins, Noah and Jonah. And…Beth's boyfriend, Bryce Harrison."

Morgan whipped his phone from his pocket. "Hey, Baby Girl." He said into it. "Can you run a search on a Bryce Harrison?"

Within ten minutes Garcia had called back and Derek put her on speaker. "All right, my pretties," She said. "I have the skinny on one Bryce Harrison. He's twenty-years-old, lived his entire life there in that quaint village. He graduated in 2008 with honors, but did not go on to college. Hmm, that's weird. Anyhoo, he appears to be squeaky clean."

"So we've got nothing on this kid?" Rossi asked.

"Nope." Garcia said. "He was adopted at birth by Victor and Leslie Harrison. His biological mother, Tammy Weston, was a drug addict and prostitute who gave birth to him at the age of fourteen. Whoa."

"What is it?" Hotch asked.

"There's a mug shot of Mommy Dearest right after she gave him up and…and well, she looks an awful lot like our victims."

"Garcia, can you send us that picture?" Hotch asked.

"It's on its way." She said.

Reid clicked on his PDA. It took only seconds for the mug shot to download. "Oh my God." He said when he saw it. Just like all the victims, Tammy had long blonde hair. She was pretty in that generic, JC Penny catalogue way. "We need to speak to Bryce Harrison."

Within minutes, Morgan, Hotch, and Rossi were on their way to theHarrisonresidence. Spencer had wanted to go, but Hotch had talked him down, telling him he was too close personally to the case and that he needed to stay with Jaime.

When they arrived at theHarrison's home, a small brick house, the three agents were greeted by his mother. She was a short woman, with long brown hair.

"Bryce isn't home right now." She told them. "Why exactly do you need to talk to him?"

"Mrs. Harrison, how long has Bryce known he was adopted?" Rossi asked. She looked at him in surprise.

"Not very long." She said nervously. "Just…just before this past Thanksgiving, I sent him up to the crawlspace to get some decorations for me and…and he found the records." She shuddered at the memory. "He was furious with us at first, but the next day…he seemed back to normal."

She looked at them with fearful eyes. "It's these missing girls, isn't it? I saw a picture of one on the news, the one that Br. Wilson found on the church steps. She looked so much like…like her that it shocked me. It scared me. I didn't know what to do."

"Ma'am, is there anyway we could see Bryce's bedroom?" Hotch asked. She nodded.

"Of course." She said. She took a deep breath. "I didn't want to think…but, now, it just seems like…" She trailed off, maybe realizing that she wasn't making any sense.

Morgan opened the door to Bryce's room. At first glance, it looked like any other young man's bedroom: done in dark greens and blues, movie and band posters everywhere, a picture of his girlfriend on his nightstand. Hotch went straight to the computer. It wasn't even password protected.

"Look at this." He said, after a few minutes. Morgan and Rossi stopped their methodical search of the room and joined him at the computer.

There were pictures upon pictures of young, blonde girls. Everything from hookers to schoolgirls.

"Jesus Christ." Morgan said.

"There's more." Hotch said. He clicked on another tab. It opened to the mug shot of Tammy Weston.

"I guess he found his mother." Rossi said.

"Agents." Mrs. Harrison came quickly into the room. "He's home."


End file.
